[WIP] Naxxramas in Skyrim: Shadow of the Necropolis

[ScarletPox]

 

"I was cast out by my comrades, exiled, forced to wander the frozen wastes. But I was not alone, not entirely; the voice, now my only companion, guided me to my destination. Strange, nightmarish creatures awaited me at the entrance; I felt my blood run cold, as cold as Icecrown itself.

 

Inside, I bore witness to horrific acts, demonstrations of power... power that could be mine for the asking. Terrified, I ran... but did not get far. All too soon, my choice was made. Too late did I realise that such power does not come... without a price.

 

Now, the world will pay a far greater toll, for I have returned. I am Kel'Thuzad... your curiosity will be the death of you!"

 

 

You faced everything that Skyrim had to throw at you and arose triumphant. You prevented the cataclysm, besting Alduin. You defied the first Dragonborn's dark ambitions and his Daedric patron's schemes. You ended the megalomania of an evil Vampire Lord. Yet all that was but a prelude, for a new darkness far more terrible than any other has come from across the void, a terror from another world in a citadel of death and horror. Naxxramas has come, and with it, the deathless legions of the Scourge.

 

You will travel to the frozen north where you will be issued with a mission – to enter Naxxramas and destroy the Scourge invaders. But even entering the citadel will be a challenge, for you will have to travel the world on a heroic quest to synchronise your very soul with the dark magic of the Scourge, hounded by the relentless agents of Kel’Thuzad’s Cult of the Damned at every turn.

 

Once a silent tomb of peaceful, eternal rest housing the deceased of the Nerubian race, Naxxramas is now a corrupted parody of its former self; where once there was silence and peace, now there is endless toil, slavery and suffering. At its heart, the evil Arch-Lich Kel'Thuzad resides, directing and controlling the Scourge forces within and without the citadel, himself a slave to the will of the Lich King Ner'Zhul.

 

Within the shadowed halls of the Necropolis, terrible forces will await you, eager to spill your blood. These enemies are no mere pushovers like those you faced before, and have the stats and the skills to annihilate you – again and again and again. You will be tested and tormented by terrifying enemies that laugh at your petty skills. The Dread Citadel awaits...

 

 Many powerful lieutenants obey Kel'Thuzad's command, occupying the four districts of the Dread Citadel:

 

• The Military Quarter houses training facilities for the twisted Death Knights of the Scourge, evil warriors who have forsaken their oaths and betrayed their people for power, glory and immortality. 
• The Arachnid Quarter contains the risen former inhabitants of Naxxramas, the deceased Nerubians, and its former guardian Anub'Rekhan, as well as the gigantic spiders bred for war by Kel'Thuzad's acolytes who undergo indoctrination within its halls.
• The Construct Quarter contains the flesh constructs built by the twisted alchemists and scientists of the Scourge, horrific creations born of suffering and pain, its halls guarded by the strongest prototype creations of the undead.
• In the Plague Quarter, new strains of the virulent Plague of Undeath are experimented upon, and some of Kel'Thuzad's most powerful necromancers guard its slimy corridors and putrid halls. Yet in the deeps, a terrible creation dwells...

 

Against such foes, your skills will be tested and your will shaken by the sheer might of the Scourge. You thought yourself powerful, yet in the face of such unholy power, your feeble prowess is but a candle flickering in an endless void...

 

 

When this mod is complete, a huge, multi-stage dungeon of great difficulty and challenge with scripted boss encounters will be added to the game for extremely high level players, along with quests, new suits of armour, new weapons and new spells that you will need to tackle the Scourge.

 

If you enjoyed the old days of vanilla World of Warcraft, and raided Naxxramas, and also want an extremely challenging and massive dungeon introducing into Skyrim for your character to fight through, then this mod is for you.

 

Please, however, consider helping, since there is a lot more to this than simply building a dungeon. Anyone who does help will of course be given the appropriate credit when the mod is completed.

 

If you are interested in helping I require assistance with the following thing(s):

• Information on how to import monster / boss models from World of Warcraft into Skyrim with animations etc. Just tell me how to do it and it will be done. Alternatively, if you wish to do it yourself, feel free, and send me the files.

Even if you are not interested / unable to help, please leave a comment and like this post so that I can firstly get an idea of what you think and also for the purposes of feedback so that I can improve the mod. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for updates.

 

UPDATE

 

Okay, so the latest version is officially lost, but I still have the older version of the mod. After a brief period of thought in which I steeled myself for the task ahead, I am now re-committed to the mod and am going to start again from the old version. This shouldn't be too hard since I have already learned so much from previous efforts. So, the work continues!

 

 

The Military Quarter / Death Knight Wing

 

VIDEOS:

 

 

 

SCREENSHOTS:

 

 

In WoW:

 

 

In Skyrim: 

 

 

Note: This mod is a work in progress and will most likely not be finished for a while. This is my first ever mod, and I am learning as I go, and as I learn how to do new things I will go back over what I have already done and re-do it to make it better. I will continue to update this page, posting new screenshots and videos until I feel ready to upload the actual mod. Until then, follow this page or check back on the forum for updates.

[Nazzzgul666]

I appretiate your intentions to make ths mod, but i hope you aren't too disappointed if nobody will help you. Many modders left skyrim for FO4, and the remaining have their own projects with a lot of work to do. I don't know if you'll find somebody (and i have no modding skills at all), i hope so, just want to say: don't think your mod isn't appretiated if no one answers.

 

Since your mod is non-adult anyways, you might ask in other forums as well. You also might consider to use an existing mod which adds monsters, also because they might have proper skeletons and animations for sexlab scenes. Since your asking on LL, it would imho be more important to make sure that the mod isn't broken if other mods like defeat trigger, and some kind of nice story.

Maybe i'm just the wrong to talk about this mod, but for me it's much more important to have a good story and dialogues or at least some books and content in general than just new monsters to kill. The atmosphere looks very good though, good work

[ScarletPox]

Oh don't worry Nazzzgul666, I already knew before asking that it was more likely that I would not receive any help. All it will result in is the extension of the time-period it will take before the mod is finished, since I will have to learn new skills such as scripting (basically learning a new language) and porting models over from WoW into Skyrim (which is harder than it sounds really). Who knows, maybe the next Elder Scrolls game will come out before this is done xD. That being said, Skyrim will always be relevant for me because it's my favourite Elder Scrolls game, because the setting is very gothic and icy compared to the previous games and certainly any that will come in the future, so I definitely won't be giving up on this. It'll just take a while, like that Wrath of the Lich King mod that CryptoSporidium is working on over at the Nexus (he's been doing it for 3 years constantly now!)

 

Also my main focus with this is just to get it done in as authentic a manner as possible. I want it to resemble the WoW dungeon as closely as possible while adding new features that the original Naxxramas lacked - immersive things like a story and books. Hopefully when it's done it won't just be an empty, characterless dungeon with no story, but there will be a questline and books galore, many of which I will write myself since I am quite a good writer. I spent many many hours in World of Warcraft wandering around Naxxramas and taking screenshots of every room from every angle so that I can refer to them while making the rooms in this dungeon. Also sound design and sound effects are key to creating the authentic WoW-esque atmosphere which is why I'm giving all the mobs in this dungeon the voice files from World of Warcraft.

 

But I also want it to be very challenging in terms of gameplay, since I am the type of person who puts many many hours into one character and develops it up to and beyond the limits, as I think you see in the video - that character is level 246! Skyrim lacks challenging dungeons and memorable encounters, and really all the Elder Scrolls have lacked in this area, except a few key dungeons like Sancre Tor in Oblivion and Red Mountain and the Clockwork City in Morrowind.

 

Another thing I think is that I used to think like you. I always used to want a Naxxramas dungeon in Oblivion but no one ever did it, and I didn't because I thought "I can't do that. I have no modding skills". But then in Skyrim I really decided to knuckle down and learn how to use the Creation Kit - I'm still learning - and make this damned Necropolis a reality xD.

 

Thank you for your insightful comment though,I appreciate it and I hope you keep paying attention to this mod-in-progress. I will probably release video updates when I achieve certain hurdles, like completing a quarter or overcoming a challenge like learning a new script etc.

[Nazzzgul666]

I have to admit, i've never played WoW. I've played all other parts of Warcraft before, but i don't like to pay every month, and i'm not that much into online games to change that. And i'm a bit afraid to get addicted xD. Therefore i probably won't become the biggest fan of this mod because i can't worhsip your work properly. Not to mention that i even never finished the skyrim mainquest because i start a new game every few weeks because i want to try another mod and have to uninstall some others. This kind of playing is new to me as well though, usually i've played more like you and the time might come i'll do again and search for a mod like this

Another thought, i think it would be a good idea to upload something even if it's far from beeing finished. In my experience here, even an unplayable alpha release gets much more attention than a youtube video, players who know WoW can give you hints and encouragement, and it's even a bit more likely you find somebody who is willing and able to help.

However you decide, i wish you good luck, fun and success

[ScarletPox]

Yeah, I probably will release the incomplete version when the Military Quarter is done. At the moment it isn't even navmeshed, so I need to finish building it and then navmeshing it then I will populate it with placeholder mobs, and release the early version. That's the plan anyway.

 

I played WoW for years, but I never actually got to do the original Naxxramas in Vanilla, although I did it in Wrath of the Lich King. Even in Wrath, right at the beginning anyway, it was really hard - but it still paled in comparison to the original Naxx. I don't really play WoW anymore, not properly anyway, it isn't what it used to be at all. I have tried a few private servers though (which are free to play if you ever get the WoW bug lol), but playing those made me realise that I'm really just bored of the whole formula of the game, so I've kinda moved on from it now and I just want to bring my favourite dungeon into Skyrim.

 

I did also play Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3. I spent a lot of time looking for a Naxxramas mod for Warcraft 3 lol, I think someone made one where they actually ripped the whole raid from WoW and put it in WC3 but they never finished it.

 

Anyway keep watching this thread because I'll update it when I have new things to show.

[SlapMeSilly]

This looks so cool. The "authentic look" is pretty darn good considering it's in Skyrim and not WoW. Hope to see it finished at some point. Great job so far.

[SunAddict]

Oh, this is fantastic! I think Nazeem should be sent in to test the new enemies.

[Venzini]

Dude, this is crazy The amount of work is staggering! You have done such a great job, and adding the sounds and music from the game makes everything better! I wish i knew scripting, just so i can work for you. 

[ScarletPox]

Dude, this is crazy The amount of work is staggering! You have done such a great job, and adding the sounds and music from the game makes everything better! I wish i knew scripting, just so i can work for you. 

 

Thanks for your comment. Scripting will be challenging, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it if need be (if I can't find anyone to help). I always say to myself "If a job is worth doing it's worth doing right!" 

 

But yeah, the keyword is "work". This is a lot of work lol.

[Luckycharms]

Seems really great !

 

I remember having doing this raid in Vanilla, the ambiance and lightning are wonderful. I'm affraid I'll have to mind control the Razuvious's minions once again...

[ScarletPox]

Update: Added new screenshots showing re-done areas. The whole Military Quarter is currently being re-textured and redesigned to more closely follow the original design. According to Steam, I've been working on this mod for about 1200+ hours so far. 

[Nizarion]

U roxx.

Gl ! Cant wait the released *-*

[ScarletPox]

Bad news... 

 

Unfortunately my hard drive containing the mod failed, and the data was not backed up. As a result, I will now have to wait until I can afford to recover the data from the failed drive, which could take a few months. Until then, there will be no progress.

[Bubbajones_ya]

Bad news... 

 

Unfortunately my hard drive containing the mod failed, and the data was not backed up. As a result, I will now have to wait until I can afford to recover the data from the failed drive, which could take a few months. Until then, there will be no progress.

 

Man that sucks... I've had one hard drive fail before and I lost some schoolwork for some engineering labs... I didn't pass that class that semester. That's over and done though I retook the class and just recently graduated so I don't have to worry about that.

 

Loosing a bunch of work like this is a huge bummer though, hopefully it can be recovered. When I updated my old computer, I had a T-rex I was working on for Oblivion I made in blender. I thought I transferred everything I needed but I didn't. I ended up loosing the texture file I made which took me about a week and the walking/running animations I did as well. However, I recently found where I put some of the files and still have my 3D mesh that is mapped for the texture as well as set up with the skeleton so that makes me super happy. I don't think I can get it into skyrim unfortunately because I don't have havok tools, which I believe is necessary for making new skeletons for new creatures in skyrim.... If only I could get my hands on the 2012 Havok Content tools I could mod so much more! (I'm guessing fallout 4 needs those content tools as well....)

 

Nice work with this mod so far and hopefully you can recover what was lost!

[SlapMeSilly]

Bad news...

 

Unfortunately my hard drive containing the mod failed, and the data was not backed up. As a result, I will now have to wait until I can afford to recover the data from the failed drive, which could take a few months. Until then, there will be no progress.

Ouch! Very sorry to hear. As a repair tech by day, I sadly hear that story all too often. Do you know what kind of failure it was? Does it click? Does the system just not read it? Can the Bios even detect it? Depending on the failure type I might be able to get a hookup for recovery service for you. Fire me a PM and I'll see what I might be able to do.

[morgananinuala]

I keep telling people who start ambitious projects: Google Drive.

 

Back.

 

Up.

 

Ur.

 

Shit.

[Guest]

Crypto here, author of SWotLK. YOU LOST NAXXRAMAS, HOW DARE YOU! YOU HAVE FAILED THE LICH KING!

So sad to hear of it. Was going to ask for the mod so I can look at your work more directly. What a shame.

 

Working on my own Naxxramas using Skyrim and its DLC objects, will post pics on my mod page once I make sufficent progress.

 

And I truly hope you can recover your work.

SUGGESTION: Downsize the stuff a bit, even for Skyrim terms, the stuff you showed is just absurdly oversized.

[ScarletPox]

Crypto here, author of SWotLK. YOU LOST NAXXRAMAS, HOW DARE YOU! YOU HAVE FAILED THE LICH KING!

So sad to hear of it. Was going to ask for the mod so I can look at your work more directly. What a shame.

 

Working on my own Naxxramas using Skyrim and its DLC objects, will post pics on my mod page once I make sufficent progress.

 

And I truly hope you can recover your work.

SUGGESTION: Downsize the stuff a bit, even for Skyrim terms, the stuff you showed is just absurdly oversized.

 

It isn't "lost" I will recover it. Thanks for your concern though, but I'm not going to downsize it, it's pointless work at this stage, it's staying at the size it's at to be more accurate to the original.

[ScarletPox]

Some good news...

 

I will be sending the broken hard drive off next week to get the data recovered. If I can't recover the data however, one of my friends had an old copy of the mod on his hard drive and if worst comes to worst I will at least be able to use that version to start work from again.

 

Fingers crossed!

[ScarletPox]

Another update.

 

The data has been successfully recovered!  I will be receiving the files in a couple of weeks or so, work will begin again soon afterward.

 

The dream is not dead!   

[ScarletPox]

I now, finally, after all these months of waiting, have the data back in my hands. I'm currently going through it all again to recompile the mod together in its proper order... work shall begin again soon!

 

Edit:

 

Looks like the most up-to-date version of the mod is one from 2015... the old version, before being rebuilt and retextured. So now I will have to go back to rebuilding it and re-texturing everything all over again.   

 

Well at least it will give me a chance to relearn how to use everything. I'm a bit rusty. Also I'll be able to get it done a bit faster this time.

[guyingsuifeng]

Thank you for sharing.

[Monster Cupcake]

Maybe is a big up but, i love what you done, it look amazing. As a fan of WoW and Naxx', i can't wait to see final result *.* So much memory !

[Jakedbean]

We all appreciate your commitment to continue even after the loss of files! You're doing great work! 

[everrider]

I really admire the effort and determination you have with this mod. Although, I'll probably never use it myself due to lack of a decent rig let alone a desktop itself. Once you get those models it looks like you'll have this thing dusted! Keep it up