Whiterun Revisited WIP

[EinarrTheRed]

Rather than derail my own support thread for another mod, I decided to go ahead and start one for this project.

 

2 hours ago, llvv11 said:

That's cool.  How are you overhauling Whiterun?

A few tweaks...
 

Spoiler

 

Inside the city:

Added foliage and other features to make the city look nicer.

Everyone has a bed and a sleep package.

Currently 14 new NPC residents inside the city, may be more added

Updated appearance for all NPCs including KS hair meshes

New shops including a bakery, tailor, ore merchant, and a new general goods store

People have a wider range of behaviors and things they do, they stop to eat lunch, they also know to go in out of the rain.

Breezehome gets overhauled and enlarged, it now has a nice new alchemy area, a separate enchanting area and library, a guest room with 2 beds option (alternate option in place of the children's beds), the main bedroom gets moved into its own attic space (cell) as well as other new features.

The jail escape tunnel gets expanded and now has an exit outside Whiterun (and a lot of other new stuff).

 

Outside the city:

All the farms got updated, they have more crops growing, more animals, more people.

The location (ownership) of the Battleborn and Pelagia farms got swapped because I felt that fit better with game lore (we're told the Battleborns got their wealth from farming yet owned the smallest farm, now they own the largest farm; Severio now lives on his small farm).

More new NPCs (six currently added with more than 30 planned)

Nazeem and Ahlam now live on their farm in their own house.

Severio Pelagia no longer dies during the Battle for Whiterun.

Lillith Maiden-Loom now has her own house.

A refugee camp is being added outside Whiterun, it starts with just a few from Morrowind, Hammerfell and Orsinium but as time goes by more regugees will appear and the camp will grow in size.

A large woodwright's shop gets added.

More new houses and potentially one new farm.

 

Also:

A ruined farm location is added (Hearth Frost Farm) which will have its own backstory as to what happened to it.

A new farmstead / village consisting of a small trading post / inn (Tundrastrider) and two farms is added near Dustman's Cairn, the farmstead is called Sweet-Water Farmstead.

The jail escape tunnel in addition to being a full length, detailed escape tunnel that now takes you all the way outside Whiterun) will also have other locations and things down there.

 

There will be new side quests to do, some of the side quests will alter or even add new locations (in one planned side quest you will get to help some NPCs set up a new farm just outside Whiterun).

 

Its still very much a work in progress and not ready for even an early alpha release yet.

 

A Cutting Room Floor compatibility patch is planned. 

 

A ETaC - Whiterun compatibility patch is in the works.  That patch will also allow the NPCs from both mods to interact with each other.

 

 

 

 

Breezehome

 

New alchemy workspace in Breezehome

The numbered items appear (and disappear) dynamically based on what ingredients you have in you in your ingredient storage, nearly 50 different items in all.  Plus room to store the collectable bug jars and separate storage for potions and for poisons.

 

New enchanting area...

 

The main market

 

Other locations inside Whiterun...

That's Jurgens, one of the new NPCs.

 

That's Svenja, she's Jurgens' hard working daughter.  Nice gal with a sunny disposition.  Their house used to be Uthgerd the Unbroken's house. Uthgerd now lives at the Bannered Mare and has her own bed there (I expanded the interior slightly) which allowed me to add two new NPCs to that house.

 

More new stalls to shop at (under construction)

 

Even Brenuin get's a bit of shelter and his own haypile to sleep in.

 

Ysolda's house on the right and her new neighbors on left (new house location).

 

The Three Smokes Bakery...

 

The new tailor shop (The Wheel and Yarn) between the Drunken Huntsman and what used to be Severio Pelagia's house (which is now Jucanis Imports since Severio moved onto his farm outside the city).

 

The "Broken Tower" which now serves as a forge storage area for Eorlund at the Skyforge, also a place for him to get out of the rain when the weather is bad.

 

The woodwright's shop (still under construction) outside the city... (and an ETaC farm house and wheat stacks, still working on making that compatible, its about 80% there)

 

Lots more... this is a BIG project that already has hundreds of hours of work in on it and hundreds more to go.  Will it be the best overhaul of Whiterun ever done?  I dunno, its my version, my vision of what Whiterun could have and perhaps should have been.   I'm not trying to make it the most HD VRAM eating version because I want something that will run on most peoples computers, for the same reason I'm not adding as much new foliage as I could because the more I add the more stress it puts on your RAM and CPU and the longer the load times.  So in some ways this is a compromise overhaul, intended to make it better but still very accessible and usable.  I'm focusing heavily on keeping everything lore friendly and also keeping the style and appearance of everything consistent with the existing Whiterun so it all blends together as seamlessly as possible.

 

Is it compatible with Home Sweet Home?  100%

Is it compatible with AYGAS?  100%  (I'm even working on having Heimskr shut up and moved before noon so he's completely out of the way of the AYGAS auctions when they happen)

Is it compatible with Populated Towns and Cities?  100% and I recommend using it, I may later add a patch to more fully integrate the two mods so the PTC NPCs can visit the new shops as well.  Recommend Populated Roads too.

Is it compatible with Sexy Bandit Captives?  100%

Is it compatible with Milk Mod Economy?  100%

Even the fancy milk barns added to Whiterun?  You do realize I built those fancy milk barns, right? ?

Is it compatible with any mod that rebuilds Breezehome?   Probably not, I'd say almost certainly not.

Is it compatible with <insert other mod>?  Honestly, I've no idea, we've only done limited testing and I haven't fully put together the list of what has and hasn't been tested.  There's probably a lot of stuff it isn't going to be compatible with, mainly anything else that heavily modifies Whiterun.  But outside of that, I would think most other kinds of mods would work fine.  And no, its not at all compatible with Open Cities, that would take an entirely new mod build and that will not happen.  But there are other mods I am working to specifically make it compatible with, like CRF, ETaC and a few others.  Lot of that you can thank Karlpaws and Psalam for, they suggested and pointed out a lot of mods and helped check compatibility.

Is it compatible with NPC appearance replacers?  Depends, some like the Companions could have their appearance replaced with zero impact on my mod (that was deliberate), others with minor impact and some replacers would break things, I'll post a list of NPCs and the level of impact when I publish the mod.  We already know there is at least one mod that overhauls all NPCs in the game that is not compatible with and breaks this mod, and there's no way for me to make them compatible (Immersive Citizens -- AI Overhaul).  Eventually, when I get closer to having the mod finished (sometime next century... least it feels that way), I may work on a way to expand that compatibility so a wider range of appearance mods could be used with little or no impact, but that's way down near the bottom of my To Do list.

Is this the best you can make the NPCs look?  For now, I'm considering doing another update on their appearance once I've had more practice with RaceMenu, but right now I'm focusing on getting content finished and functional.

What body type and/or skin pack does it use or require?  It doesn't require any specific body replacer or skin pack.  I want to keep the NPC changes mainly to face and hair tweaks so its fully (or at least mostly) compatible with whatever you have installed, same with most building textures btw.

Does it change Riverwood also?  Nope, doesn't touch Riverwood or Rorikstead.  Originally it did, way back when this mod was just a few personal tweaks to various places in Whiterun Hold, its grown a LOT since then and been re-organized and now focuses on Whiterun and its immediate environs.  Sweet-Water is sort of the sole exception to that.

 

What is Sweet-Water Farmstead?  Its just a small farmstead I added for a couple reasons.  For one, I kept looking at that paved road (including the expense of a stone bridge) going no where and it bugged me... I felt it needed to go *somewhere* (other than an apparently abandoned graveyard) so I created a farmstead that eventually became Sweet-Water.  The farmstead (which has had various names during development) got its name from the large number of apiaries they keep, which now explains where Honningbrew Meadry gets its honey.  So just sort of adding to and making sense of existing game lore.  Other than that there's just two farming families and a trio of Nord brothers who running a hunting lodge / trading post and they have a spare bed to rent.

 

What kind of side-quests are being added?  Nothing world changing, mostly things that give the player a chance to interact with the residents more, discover more about them.  Some planned side quest will delve into Nazeem and Ahlam's marrital problems and the cute new farm hand on Chillfurrow farms.  You'll get a chance to get to know Rellus Jucanis (owner of Jucanis Imports, the new general store and rival of Belethor) better and find out more about him and his family and why they came to Skyrim from Cyrodiil.  You'll learn more about the Battle-Borns, Idolaf and their feud with the Greymanes.  Things like that.  Some of the side-quests will be very short, others a bit longer but none of them will have any impact on the larger story of what's happening in Skyrim, its mainly just for local color, expand on and flesh out game lore, introduce NPCs and provide the player additional things to do.

 

When will I release this mod?  No planned release date as yet.  I want to get Breezehome fully finished and functional first, as well as finishing the new interior shops (Jucanis Imports is done, bakery is done, tailor shop is about 60% done, I still need to add the ore merchant and one other new merchant) before I do an early alpha release, so a bit of work left to do yet.  Even then, people will need to understand this mod is still VERY much a WIP and in an early form, none of the planned side quests have even been started yet so there are still TONS of things left to do.

 

Will there be an SE version of this mod?  Ugh... I don't even want to think about that right now.  I may eventually, eventually I may convert over to SE but right now I'm still playing and modding Oldrim and trying to maintain two versions when I still have so much to do just to get this mod ready even for an alpha WIP release... ugh.   To convert this to SE will require converting a LOT of new meshes, NPCs and other things, I'm nowhere near ready to even think about tackling that.  After the issues with my Hearthfire Dungeon, I'm not looking forward to it either.

 

Will I do a version without the Breezehome changes so you can use some other Breezehome mod?   Ask and I may hunt you down and hurt you.  Seriously, at this point I have no plans to because I've put a ton of work into Breezehome already.  What I might do one day when this mod is finished and I've had a vacation and some time to recover from the project... who knows.  IF (and that is a HUGE if) I ever do, it will probably be sometime after doing an SE conversion, see above remarks.

 

Will this mod have adult content?  Not the main mod.  I have some add-ons I'll work on once the main mod is out that will add adult content including a planned brothel "The House of the Rising Falls" and some other stuff.  The main mod however will be as PG-rated as vanilla Skyrim and I plan to eventually post it over at Nexus as well as LoversLab.

 

Are you working on this by yourself or with a team?  Sort of, I've some very patient beta-testers who have been helping out as well as various talented people who have been helping me with scripting and other aspects of the project, they'll all be listed in the mod credits when I publish it.  But the bulk of the work, yeah, its just me working in my spare time.  This is by far the biggest mod project I've ever tackled.  Send caffeine.

 

Almost everything is subject to change, tweaks, improvements, accidental breakage, etc.  I am open to suggestions, but I've also got a specific vision for this project and will weigh how well any suggestions fit into that.  Keep in mind, everything must be lore friendly, that's one of the main goals with this mod.

 

 

So yeah... just a few tweaks and upgrades.  *cough* ?

 

[llvv11]

That's cool

[DonQuiWho]

Please don't kill off Heimskr.  That's my job ....

 

Otherwise, looks good. Esp like the compatibility with ETaC

 

I trust you'll have a big enough working area in Breezehome to get the full benefit of HSH?  I've used Comphy to replace Breezehome interior - was on Nexus but seems to have been taken down - and it is a single huge cell, with interesting features but the accessible 'room spaces' are really too big (think cathedral like) to create a proper atmosphere for a slavetrader's den. 

 

I note that you'll do adult stuff as add ons, but it would be useful to have some sort of vanilla mod with spaces addons can convert into prison cell block(s) / training room(s), fully accessible from the main building - bit like Goubo used to have in Defeat, although if memory serves me right, it was a separate cell with load door.  It would mean that we could work straight from of Breezehome without location hopping

 

Hope that made some sense

 

 

[EinarrTheRed]

13 minutes ago, donkeywho said:

Please don't kill off Heimskr.  That's my job ....

LOL, nope not killing any NPC off.  Just working on tweaking his behavior packages so he has more variety in his behavior and he's out of the way at certain times.

13 minutes ago, donkeywho said:

 

Otherwise, looks good. 

 

I trust you'll have a big enough working area in Breezehome to get the full benefit of HSH?  I've used Comphy - was on Nexus but seems to have been taken down - and it is a single huge cell, with interesting features, but probably the individual accessible 'room spaces' are really too big to create a proper atmosphere for a slavetrader's den

Yup, have it running in my own game now with about eight slaves under HSH in there.  It gets a little crowded at times but generally works okay.  In my version, the main bedroom gets moved into its own cell in an "attic" space at the top of the tower.  I did that so that the bedroom could be used as a save point space.  The rest of the house is still one cell and pretty familiar floor plan, its just that I pushed out the back wall for the first two floors of the new "tower" and that's where I put the alchemy stuff on the first floor along with a small sitting area, on the 2nd floor the enchanting stuff and library.  What used to be the loft bedroom is now a balcony overlooking the first floor entry and fireplace and the smoke from the fire can now go straight up and out the roof.

 

I'll post some more screen shots when I get the chance.

 

One of the main areas I need to finish up is Breezehome and integrating that into the Steward's dialog so you can buy all the upgrades like you normally would.  Right now if you were to buy Breezehome, all the upgrades are just there, and I want it fully working the way it should.

 

[winny257]

7 minutes ago, SSW8532 said:

If pedоphilic mods are published on your site, then who should be responsible for this?

ah now I understand what your problem is, do you have a cock and what are you doing with him?
do you use it as a lasso or do you make sex? 
 

[EinarrTheRed]

Meanwhile, I'm working on the library in Breezehome, getting all the bookshelves working.

 

 

Bookshelves will include space for a total of 176 books, a custom scroll storage container (where you see the stacks of scrolls, that's in and working) and I may try to work in a custom display / storage container for the various Black Books as well (located under the picture on the right side, the display is there but not functional yet).

 

Also, I'd like to say thank you to our hard working moderators for a speedy clean up.  Remember folks, don't feed the trolls.

 

 

[DonQuiWho]

Thanks for taking the time to cover the updates!  Looks good

[EinarrTheRed]

You're very welcome, will try to post regular updates.  My goal is to get Breezehome fully built and functional (all the upgrade options able to be bought and so forth), get the rest of the new NPCs in inside Whiterun and some behavior package changes and there's one part of the escape tunnel I need to do some more work on.  I get that done I'll probably post a first public alpha release.  Not sure how long that will take, rebuilding Breezehome has been complex to get everything working but I think people will like it.  Its much nicer but still feels like Breezehome.

 

Lots left to do on the project though, its going to be a ongoing WIP for quite awhile.

[winny257]

On 7/3/2019 at 4:05 PM, EinarrTheRed said:

Also, I'd like to say thank you to our hard working moderators for a speedy clean up.  Remember folks, don't feed the trolls.

I was responsible for cleaning up! 
even three times and today two times!
I informed the moderators, and I fed the spammer around time to win, time is power if you understand. 

 

I do very much for this website, actually should you thank me! 

[EinarrTheRed]

I haven't posted anything to this in a long while.  Work is still ongoing and a lot of progress has been made.  I'm far enough along that I can almost see a point of being able to release an early WIP / Beta version of the mod.   So I figured it was about time to post an update on the progress and a lot of screen shots to give a preview of what's in development.

 

Whiterun, center of Skyrim and probably the most common base for adventuring.  It was supposed to be a thriving city built on a mountain by the Nord around the mysterious Skyforge.  If you dig into the history, Whiterun is one of the oldest cities in Skyrim, nearly as old as Windhelm and Winterhold and as been occupied for at least 4,000 years.  But for such a large and important city with such a rich history I never felt it really... felt... like what it was supposed to be.  Vanilla Whiterun had about 72 NPC total living there, as it currently stands, this mod will up that number to over 165 NPC living in or outside Whiterun.  Everyone has a home, a bed, things to do and there's a lot more variety being added to peoples behaviors.

 

So... here's what the new Revisited Whiterun is starting to look like, bird's eye view...

Spoiler

 

If it looks a lil bit bigger than you remember, it is.  Whiterun originally consisted of three districts, you know them well.  The Plains District was the lowest area where you find Breezehome and most merchants.  Above that was the Wind District with the temple to Kynereth and wealthier homes and finally above it all the Cloud District where we find Dragonsreach itself.  But now there's an entire new district, the Spring District.  Located on the other side of the Wind District its a purely residential area with its own local pub, The Unfortunate Bird (If that name sounds familiar to anyone, its from ES Lore, specifically Arena).

 

In all this expansion a lot has been added and a lot has been moved around.  So taking the Plains District first.

Spoiler

 

A - The Main Gate:  Now has steps leading up to it and a guard stationed above, there's a wooden cover to give them protection from the elements and dragons.  There's also a decorative wooden arch which in the finished mod may be part of a side quest to build, something you as the player will be able to help add to Whiterun to improve the place.

 

B - The Front Guardhouse - Gets a new protected area up top to help give guards some protection during battles and from dragons.

 

C - Warmaiden's - The forge area got a make over which makes its more accessible and visually more interesting.

 

D - Drunken Huntsman - Mostly unchanged outside, Nazeem and Ahlam no longer live here as they now have their own house on their farm.  Erlindir is now married to a breton, Kaie, who live here.

 

E - The Wheel And Yarn - Whiterun has a tailor shop where you can buy clothes, robes, and sell tundra cotton and a few other ingredients used to make dyes.  Run by a spinster (in both senses of the word) name Maveld, she has twin nieces living with her.

 

F - Jucanis Imports - This used to be the house of Severio Pelagia and it used to get destroyed in the battle for Whiterun, now Severio lives on his own farm and it no longer gets destroyed in the battle.  Its now home to an Imperial family from Cyrodiil, Rellus Jucanis and his wife Gabiana and their daughter Apinia.  He runs an import business which competes with Belethor... and isn't doing very well.  Rellus is related to the Jucani of Bruma.

 

G - Carlotta Valentia's House - This used to be the location of Breezehome, but I moved it to the Wind District.  This is now the home of Carlotta and her daughter, they have a garden plot out back where she grows some of her own vegetables to sell in addition to produce she resells from some of the farms.  Don't worry, if you drop this mod into an existing game it won't break Breezhome, I just move the house and door link thanks to a bit of scripting magic provided by Blackbird Wanderer.

 

H - Small Market - This is a new small market area consisting of a merchant selling and buying various ores.  There's also a junk dealer, a young man who is struggling to make a living for himself and his new wife (they live in the Common House).

 

I - Olava the Feeble's House - Added a chicken coup out back.

 

J - Belethor's - You know it well.

 

K - The Old Market - This is all that remains of the old market square from long ago.  Over time Whiterun has had older parts torn down and built over and I wanted to give that impression.  Most days this area is just an open spot where you can stop and sit, there's also a shrine to Zenithar here.  On weekends some farmers will set up a stall here and sell produce.  There's a new guard post here as well (overall Whiterun has more guards which put up a better fight against vampires and dragons).

 

L - Three Smoke's Bakery - Whiterun now has a bakery, turns out you CAN get a good sweetroll in Whiterun, along with a variety of other baked goods.  They'll also buy eggs, milk and wheat.

 

M - The Common House - located where Ysolda's house used to be (she now lives in a new house in the Spring District) this large building is the Common House.  It serves as a sort of common dwelling for the poor.  Lucia now lives and sleeps here (Brenuin does not, he's too cheap and lazy to even afford this place) along with a few other families.  Most work as labor in other businesses around Whiterun.  The player will be able to rent a bed here long term if they want, it's cheaper than renting a room at the Bannered Mare overall but you pay by the month instead of for one night.  This was intended for poor players who haven't been able to buy Breezehome yet.

 

N - Garden - This area used to be some sort of shrine or monument but has been filled in and converted into a community garden.

 

O - Arcadia's Cauldron - Outside a potting bench, herb garden and a fish hatchery have been added.  You can even catch fish from the hatchery if you're quick, they like to hide.

 

P - The Bannered Mare - Outside I've added an animal pen, a makeshift shelter for Brenuin in back and behind it is an area you may find some drunken guardsmen, it used to be a training area but... "security in Whiterun is terrible" and so is discipline.  There may be some side quests to do something about that and turn it back into a proper training area for the guards.

 

Sneak Previews

Spoiler

 

------------------------

 

The Wind District

 

This area is still being developed but its shaping up as the wealthier part of town.  I've changed a lot, including moving around residences.

Spoiler

 

A - Breezehome:  New location where Carlotta's house used to be.  It's somewhat larger outside and inside than it used to be but still entirely lore friendly.  As part of the upgrades you will be able to build a small garden area (with Hearthfire style planters), and fountain with your choice of several statues.

 

B - Three Shields House:  This is one of two houses now occupied by new thanes in Whiterun, yup, the player isn't the only thane living in Whiterun now.  This house has a long history and is rumored to have originally been built upposedly built by Myrfwiil the Withdrawn in the 1st Era.  Myrfwiil famously went on to become one of the Harbinger's of the companions and according to lore was responsible for declaring them neutral in politics and wars.  The current owner is Thane Kailstig.

 

C - Cloudview House:  Home to another of Whiterun's thanes, famous for its balcony overlooking the Wind District and a nice view of Dragonsreach (the Cloud District, hence the name Cloudview).

 

D - Battleborn House:  You know it well.

 

E - Shrine to Mara:  There is a sitting area and shrine to Mara in this garden spot.  A favorite meeting place for lovers.  You might see Jon and Olfinna here sometimes.

 

F - Spring Gate:  The gate way to the new Spring District, no load screen, just walk on through.

 

G - Greymane House:  You know it well, added some shelter for the animals outside.

 

H - Temple of Kynereth:  You know it well.

 

Previews

Spoiler

 

-------------------------

 

The Spring District

 

This entirely new district was added to give additional residential space for all the new NPCs or those displaced cause I changed the buildings in other districts.  Ysolda has her own home here, as do Amren and his family.  The new ore merchant lives here in his own home.  There's Jurgens and his daughter Svenja (new NPCs), and others.  There's a new pub/tavern you can get a drink or bite to eat (no rooms for rent though).  There's even a new guard barracks and an abandoned house rumored to be haunted!

 

Spoiler

 

A - The Spring Gate - there's a small guard post inside to one side.

 

B - The Unfortunate Bird - A tavern / pub frequented by locals.  There is a well out front.

 

C - Amren's House - Home to Amren, Saffir and Braithe.

 

D - Jurgens House - Home to Jurgens, a retired veteran and frequent drunk.  His daughter Svenja has a garden plot out back and also works sometimes at Arcadias.

 

E - Home of the Ore Merchant - still under development, the NPC hasn't been named yet.

 

F - Ysolda's House - She gets a nicer home and may eventually have a business here as she struggles to become a merchant.

 

G - Residence - still under development.

 

H - Shrine to Diabella - popular spot to have lunch and enjoy the beautiful view.

 

I - Residence - Under development, planned to be the home of a chef working in Dragonsreach (they have that big kitchen and no one doing any cooking, gonna fix that).

 

J - Spring Barracks - guard barracks for guards patrolling this part of the city

 

K - Abandoned House - boarded up and rumored to be haunted, no one lives here.  Curiously lights can be seen on behind the shutters at night.

 

L - Resevoir - Basically a small lake / catch basin for the springs that flow into this area its a nice water feature.  Water flows out through a grate (which comes back out beside the Battleborn house in the Wind District, so now you know where all that water comes from).

 

Previews

Spoiler

 

The Spring District is one of the most recent additions and still very much under construction.

 

------------------------

 

But that still isn't everything!

 

Outside Whiterun I've built up a small town of farms and crafts shops along the main road.  Along with that are some major changes.

 

The largest farm in front of Whiterun is now the Battleborn farm, with even more fields of wheat.  Nearly the size of all the other farms combined it is by far the wealthiest farm and thus the source of the Battleborn's wealth.  Gwendolyn has help from two other buxom lasses, after all, Olfrid does boast about the buxom women in the clan.

 

There's a new forward guard post with some gibbets, and 3 new guards patrolling which should help further with vampire and dragon attacks.

 

New shops include a woodwright shop (The Maul and Glut) home to master woodwright Rolf Junderhjall (yes that's a tribute to Roy Underhill), a stonemason, a potter, a chandler, a new farm, a small Vigilant mission, and a new inn & tavern.  Chillfurrow farm got an upgrade and a new main house where Nazeem and Ahlam now live.  What used to be the Battleborn farm is now the Pelagia Farm and Severio now lives there in a larger farm shack.

 

This part is still VERY much under development and most NPC and buildings still aren't done.  As part of the new upgrade system for the new Breezehome, you'll work with Rolf and possibly even some of the other crafts shops to buy the upgrades (and the new Breezehome has a LOT more upgrade options).

 

Previews

Spoiler

 

Back left - The Maul and Glut, the new woodwright's shop.

Next to that is the new stone mason

Forground - a new farm

Back right - the original stable house and Lilith Maidenloom's new house

 

The chandler shop, beehives and a couple of kettles rending tallow

 

 

The new potter's shop with a couple kiln's outside.

 

On the right, just before Honningbrew, is the new inn, The Rising Falls.  Will have food, drink and rooms for rent.  Possibly other services.

 

 

 

The relocated Battleborn farm with more crops and more livestock

 

A new wooden foot bridge across the stream.  On the other side a refugee camp.  During play new refugees will randomly show up, victim's of dragon attacks, the civil war, and bandits.

 

In the background is Chillfurrow farm

 

The Vigilant Mission, with brother and sister team, Barro and Isobel Denian.

 

 

The new guard post.

 

-----------------

 

That's still not everything though!

 

There's also the new Sweetwater Farmstead near Dustman's Cairn.  This land is owned by the Battleborn's and includes two tenant farms and a small hunting lodge.  They produce food and honey, the honey gets sold to the meadery and the farmer's come into Whiterun on weekends to sell their produce.  The hunting lodge sells bows and arrows, you can get a drink there and they have a bed for rent.

 

Spoiler

 

----------------

 

But wait... there's more!

 

What I'm not showing you (yet) is the tunnel system under Whiterun!  This area is still very much under development but currently extends the escape tunnel from the jail out so it runs the full real length and has an outside exit.  There's still a connection to one of the guard barracks as well as some other interesting spots (like a nearly forgotten cistern right under the main market above).  What else will be added is... well, can't give away everything now can I.  ?

 

There are also many other features and surprises I haven't mentioned because... well, why spoil the surprises! 

 

Oh, and there are hawks flying over the city now.  Always thought it was weird that there weren't any, especially since the patron Aedra is Kynereth / Kyne who is associated with hawks.  BTW, I'm doing a number of things to represent that association, including some aspects of the older Nord version of Kyne in various details.

 

I still can't give an ETA for when I'll do an initial release, there is a LOT of work yet to be done but I'm getting close enough to see the light at the end of that particular tunnel (unless its a train...).  I still have a lot of NPCs to add, building interiors to finish and I have to build a system to inject the behavior and faction changes for some NPCs (although I've been updating their appearance I'm not as good as some others, the injection system will allow you to use any appearance mod you like).

 

So, that's the update.   Stay tuned.

 

Special thanks to my beta test team who have been extremely helpful in developing this mod, it would not be half of what it is without them!

[donttouchmethere]

13 minutes ago, EinarrTheRed said:

So, that's the update.   Stay tuned.

Your mod preview is already worth getting a mod status ?

[EinarrTheRed]

Thanks, its getting there.  I want to finished getting the NPCs in (or at least finish getting the vendors in), and that injection system and then do a first beta release.  Once that's done, there's still tons to do.  I have more locations to build, especially under Whiterun, and there are more than 40 new side quests planned... and I haven't done the first one! ?

 

The mod is a long way from being finished, but it is making progress.  

[travelmedic]

Looks great!  While I use a Whiterun beautifier now and really like it (JK Whiterun I think), it will be nice to see one that adds a lot of new content to the city.  I had tried a couple of other older expansions in the past, but they didn't do a lot for me, and also seemed very incomplete.

 

As best I can tell from your pictures, it will work with the Bathing Beauties Luxury Suite, which is another plus for me.

 

You mentioned that while the main plugin would be very much safe for work, you were contemplating some adult oriented add-ons.  I'd love to see a Breezehome cellar addition that got the same treatment as your Hearthfire cellars.  (sorry, I know that's just more work for you added on to what is no doubt an already extensive list)

[EinarrTheRed]

Correct, the main mod won't have any adult content... at least not anything we don't find in vanilla Skyrim.

 

But I do plan to do an add-on that will add some adult content.  The Rising Falls is one planned location, it'll get some prostitutes and there may be some associated additional quests.

 

Breezehome likely won't get the sort of cellar that I did for Hearthfire, but it does get quite a lore friendly overhaul, including a small cellar area (Lydia gets a nicer and larger bedroom down there), armoury and crafting supply storage, and a pool that has a auto outfit change feature (they'll wear whatever swimwear you assign, or nothing at all).  Lydia also gets an option where you can assign her sleepwear along with your spouse (if any), those functions are already in and work pretty well (isn't perfect but it works about 90% of the time) and will be part of the base mod.  My goal was to overhaul Breezehome to the point a separate overhaul mod wouldn't be needed or desired.  The bar for that has kinda been Elionora's Breezehome, I've been trying to outdo that.  I consider that a pretty high bar to pass, but I think I'm getting there.  In other words, this should be the only Whiterun / Breezehome mod you need by the time I'm done.  Also, my redone Breezhome will work with HSH, and there's room to add some HSH furniture options (they go together pretty well).

 

However, I might add an additional area somewhere in the tunnels that might be kind of like the Hearthfire dungeon as part of the adult add on.

 

Anything like that though is just on the drawing board as idea notes, I haven't gotten nearly that far.

 

As for the appearance of Whiterun, I'm trying to make it look nicer without going overboard on it.  There's been a lot of internal discussion about that.  In brief the working concept falls along these lines:

• Whiterun is a very old place so first I wanted to create a real sense of layers of architecture, with things built on top of each other.  Older Nord stonework inserted into the foundations of more recent buildings, old monuments, and other things that help create the visual impression that this place has a lot of history.
• Whiterun has been impacted by the Civil War.  The civil war in Skyrim has been dragging on for about 25 years now and that's had an effect.  I wanted to represent this in various ways, one is the refugee camp outside that starts out when you begin the game with a few residents and then randomly grows as you continue to play the game with more families showing up.  Each new family would have a randomly assigned back story as to what caused them to become refugees.
• The people of Whiterun don't have a lot to celebrate, almost everyone knows someone who has died as a result of the civil war, the bandits or the Thalmor and now there are dragons, its a scary time.  So while I wanted to make Whiterun visual more interesting I didn't want it to be to "festive", at least not at first.
• The people of Whiterun have also started to forget their history, and that's caused them to loose a sense of who they are.  The community garden that was once a monument of some sort is one example of this, there are more such things being added.  There's actually a lot of history the player can "uncover" by poking around and looking at various locations and I plan to add a "scholar" NPC who is studying Whiterun and can help with this.  The idea being to make discovering lore immersive.
• There will be some "Civic" side quests.  These quests give the player a chance to restore some of that lost history which in turn helps raise morale in Whiterun.  Over time, as the player does more, the idea will be for more festive things to appear and even some regular monthly festivals celebrating various holidays.  Going this route would make Whiterun more beautiful and enjoyable to live in.  Alternatively, a player could go a darker path by choosing to destroy more of Whiterun's history and further depress morale, this could lead to Whiterun becoming darker and nastier things happening like public executions and so forth.  This idea is still mostly concept with only a few locations included so far, but its an angle I definitely want to work on.  It makes Whiterun more of a "living" place that the player can work to shape over time through their actions.
• Finally, I am working to keep all my changes compatible with the battle of Whiterun that takes place as part of the civil war main quest line, and in some ways enhance it (example once you go through the main gate into Whiterun, expect more opposition and if you aren't careful a few arrows in the back, you're in a kill box ?).

So, end result, Whiterun even at game start should be visibly more appealing and interesting to live in and explore, and depending on the player actions (once I get everything done) it can change even more.  How it changes will depend on player choices.

 

 

If this is the Bathing Beauties mod you mean, then as far as I know its completely compatible, I don't mod that area at all.  The navmesh cell borders are also untouched so should connect without problem.

[Thermite Dragon]

I am going to hazard a guess that this will not function with Open Cities of Skyrim when it's done?

I mean, it sounds cool enough that I may well be willing to give up my ability to jump over the walls for it when it's done. Just wondering, 'cause I really don't like the cities being separate instances like they are. >.>

[EinarrTheRed]

Correct, this was built with vanilla Whiterun (separate world space) and currently only in LE.  I won't attempt a SE conversion until I'm much further along.  I don't like making major changes like that mid project.  There will be an SE conversion eventually.

 

I'm nor sure how well it would function with open cities in LE anyway, I'm already adding a lot of occlusion planes to try an prevent FPS loss and keep game play smooth.

 

Converting this to be an open city is not something I've even considered and the amount of work that would involve.... cringe... please... don't hurt me anymore!!!  ?

[Thermite Dragon]

*cracks whip*
More features! We demand MORE!

[EinarrTheRed]

? 

 

Right now my goal is to get the bulk of the location and NPCs in and a bit of scripting stuff to make it broadly compatible with appearance replacers.  I've done an overhaul of all the NPCs appearance (male and female, KS Hair used) but I'm not as good as some like Bijin or Emerilada and I know people will want to be able to use those kinds of mods so I'm working to include that option.  Breezehome has also been completely overhauled (as well as relocated) and is now MUCH nicer, that won't be compatible with mods but I think I've done well enough people won't want to use anything else and this will let them shrink their load order a bit.  By the time the mod is finished I'm hoping to have maybe as many as 80 side quests, with some chained together to form mini-quest lines.   Already mentioned is the example being able to restore some of the history and monuments in Whiterun and raise morale causing Whiterun to be more festive and begin celebrating some lore based festivals (ES lore has quite a lot of them to pick from).  Another idea will be a short quest line to help a refugee family build a new farm outside Whiterun which they will move into.   I'm also putting in content aimed at different character builds, there's stuff to support playing a mage, stuff for fighter builds, stuff for thief builds (and some planned content that is only available if you join the Thieves Guild).  My end goal is not just to make the mod lore friendly but lore immersive by re-introducing lore from previous ES releases.  There is still a LOT left to do, ...and miles to go before I sleep.

 

So yeah, more features. ?

 

[travelmedic]

The monuments and festivals sounds like a really neat idea.  Obviously not something that may be related to the main quest, but something that would make the city actually feel lived in and give it a lot of flavor.  Stuff like that is a little bit lacking from the vanilla game.

[kohlteth]

This looks to be so cool when finished, sadly for me will be a bit of a wait though as I switched from Oldrim a while back, so sick of the random CTF for no reason and memory issues, been far happier with SSE now that certain things are there, like PAHE  and its side-steps, Pretty Bandits, and SBC that I adore that its links back into PAHE for recruitment. 

 

But this is by far the best Whiterun conversion I have seen yet, and Whiterun is definetly the best of the cities, less, gloomy. 

 

and for the record I love the Hearthfire Dungeon addon. Just wish I could make the Torch Sconces work SE vers. 

[0nislayer99]

Hi so my question is, is that by chance will this mod be compatible with re textures from the nexus?, because the previews are straight out gorgeous compared to vanilla, and by chance will this have any conflicts with the great forest of Whiterun mod or any other mod that changes the land near or around whiterun, i ask because of the outer housing and farms that is included from the mod.

 

 

 

[EinarrTheRed]

53 minutes ago, 0nislayer99 said:

Hi so my question is, is that by chance will this mod be compatible with re textures from the nexus?, because the previews are straight out gorgeous compared to vanilla,

Most of them should work fine.  I use a couple myself and there the grass and cobblestone in my screen shot are two replacers that I recommend using but aren't required for the mod to work.  I also highly recommend using Pure Waters.  This mod was built with that or similar mods in mind, the water just doesn't look as good (or as clear) without it and you'll miss seeing details underwater without something like that.

 

Also, ANY NPC appearance replacer will work with this mod and you'll still have the full updates to their behaviors, factions, and so forth.  So far I've tested things like Ordinary Women, Pandorables Males and Bijin's Warmaidens.  All of those work fine.  I do update the appearance of every NPC in this mod, but I'm not on the same level as Pandorable or others, so the mod has been set up so that you can use whatever appearance replacer you prefer.

 

 

Quote

 

and by chance will this have any conflicts with the great forest of Whiterun mod or any other mod that changes the land near or around whiterun, i ask because of the outer housing and farms that is included from the mod.

Great Forest probably isn't compatible, but I haven't checked.   I have tried to leave space for some mods like Elysium Estate and a few others, but some conflicts were unavoidable.  To add in the new areas, I had to use a certain amount of space.

 

Work on the mod is ongoing, I've been busy this past week doing a lot of clean up and continuing to work on interiors.  I just finished up with the Spring District and am now working on finishing the interiors of the buildings in that area.  Whiterun has also gotten some recent upgrades to its fortifications.  The area around Dragonsreach (Cloud District) feels a lot more like it was once the keep of a castle now.  The Bannered Mare has been overhauled (interior) and the inside is now slightly larger while still looking and feeling a lot like the original (at first glance you may not realize its bigger, I deliberately tried to make it feel very much like the original while creating the needed additional space... its also a lot easier to move around in even with extra NPCs in there from Immersive Wenches, Populated Towns and Cites and freed gals from SBC).   The remodel allowed me to add five additional guest rooms and give Hulda her own bedroom.  There are 3 new NPCs that live and work in the Bannered Mare.  We have Eerika, who works as the night manager so Hulda can have a break and get some sleep.  There's Krysta and Kara, one is a new barmaid and the other is a replacement that appears only if Saadia dies.  The inn should still be fully combatible with any quest mod out there or any mod that drops new followers into the inn.  There are also some other new surprises I'll leave as a surprise (hint:  The new guest rooms are there for a reason ?).

 

I should do another progress update soon, maybe a video tour of things.

 

I still don't dare give an ETA on when I'll have a first release, but I am working hard towards it.  I'm also happy to say that after some initial tests it looks like when I do make that initial release it will be for both LE and SE.

 

Glad you like the look of it, its been and continues to be a labor of love.

[littlemage]

This looks very promising! Can't wait for you to finish!

[EinarrTheRed]

Thank you, I can't wait either.  LOL

 

I've been busy with some other projects this week, but I have all but three locations in the new Spring District completed (two residential homes and their NPCs and the Haunted House are left to do).  In the Wind District there are two new homes for thanes,  The Three Shields house is about 1/2 way completed and will have its new thane and family hopefully next week.  After that I'll work on Cloudview and the other thane.  I still have some work to do on the Hall of the Dead, but that will finish the Wind District.  There's a bit more to do around Jorvaskr but that's mostly done now.  And that leaves the Cloud District (the area outside Dragonsreach) which has three new locations that have been roughed in but still need a lot of work.

 

Ysolda's house got a complete overhaul, she now lives in the Spring District in a 2 story house.  Since she is marriageable and the Player might end up living there, I tried to make the home comfortable for two though its far from being on par with an actual Player Home.  Her home also has some unique features and hints that will be developed further in quests later that involve Ysolda.  But overall I tried to keep it a middle to upper-middle class home, she's doing alright for herself but she's not wealthy like the Battle-borns.

 

Breezehome is still a work in progress, I'm going all out with it and making it a super nice player home but that will also come with a more complex upgrade system (and a lot more upgrade options).

 

I've done a little work on the area out front of Whiterun, but most of that still needs to be finished.  That includes two new locations that have been added, an abandoned Quarry which will be a quest location, and a new Iron Mine which will also be a quest location (that part is still VERY much in development).

 

The tunnel system under Whiterun is also growing and being developed but that part is still more concept than anything, most of it hasn't been built yet.

 

Then there's new dialog which I'm also hoping to have done for the new release.  I'm also learning about the new SKVA utility, so we'll see what happens there.

 

I may post some more screen shots of the new fortifications and things this weekend if I get the chance.

 

Oh and I'll go ahead an let this slip as well.  Thanks to some help from my Dev team, its looking like when I do the initial release it will be for both LE and SE right out of the box.  One test conversion has already been done and that went well so we're hopeful to be able to have a full conversion for SE for the initial release.  I hadn't planned on doing that but I've got some great people helping me and that's making a lot of new stuff possible. 

[Baltasarr80]

That sounds nice? One Question is T.ara working with you on that Conversion of Whiterun? 

 

I just like her stuff