Project Tamriel

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The city of Markarth, seat of the throne of King Barda, ruler of the Reach. A Tier II city (30-50 ints) placed upon a giant cliff with a narrow road leading upwards through the city towards the ancient Elfstone Keep - the Direnni ruin which serves as stronghold and palace. The city is protected by wooden fort walls, as the visual result of using the Markarth wall set was undesirable. We will save the set for Haafingar.

Claiming.

Edit: didn't see your other thread at first...

I'm super excited to see you claim this, roerich. Those screens look great. What is your concept for the overall city, though, and have you discussed it with anyone?

We had quite some discussion in the IRC earlier of how the city should be looking with roerich posting some screens, but nobody could really agree on anything.

We have had an intense discussion on the city layout indeed. Poor Roerich had to tear down the upper city once more and now works on the third iteration.

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Showing Elfstone Keep, a few farm houses along the road leading up to Markarth and the northern fishermens docks. It was cloudy as hell all the time, and I couldn't remember the weather codes, but I'll take a good overview shot soon.

Some really nice atmosphere in some of those shots, I like how the castle is lurking back there in the fog in the second-last one.

My favorite screenshot is the left one in the middle. Those houses feel just very natural and right as they are standing. The little ruin on the outskirts is a very nice touch, as are the hanging moss from the cliffs. I would prefer to see the grate door used for the main entrance of Elfstone Keep, because it is very visible that the insignias of the current door are cut off by the narrow doorframe.

The Direnni set is so awesome. And the way you've used it is awesome as well. Awesome for Everyone!

Is there a way to get better distant land textures on the Direnni stuff? The ones in your screens look very dark roerich.

Otherwise, excellent atmosphere. I feel the dock could be a lot more developed (well aware this is a wip though)

I really like it. Your Old Hrol'dan's screens posted on officials and old forums allured me to the project in the first place, and your work here looks even more catchy. I'm sure that Markarth will be a sight to see. Love the cliff especially, that's how that stuff should be done.

Have you settled how the College of Voice will look like? Will there be new model done for it? I think adapting direnni set for it, something like dwemer set used for Markarth in TES V, but with greater caring, may be an idea?

I like the concept of Markarth undergoing rapid grow in recent years. It's past reminds me of Skyrim's Throat of the World. We have ancient institution here (Imperial College of Voice/High Hrotghar) with a nearby settlement providing it service (Markarth/Ivarstead). Add to that newcomers. And Ayleid ruins. It sounds like a great concept, can't wait to more of your work on it.

I have been wondering, did you use bitter coast moss for the flora hanging from the cliff or do we have new models for stuff like that? I was unable to locate it and it would come really handy, I tend to molest cavern_root_leaf models way too much

Thanks, all!

berry wrote:Have you settled how the College of Voice will look like? Will there be new model done for it? I think adapting direnni set for it, something like dwemer set used for Markarth in TES V, but with greater caring, may be an idea?

I like the concept of Markarth undergoing rapid grow in recent years. It's past reminds me of Skyrim's Throat of the World. We have ancient institution here (Imperial College of Voice/High Hrotghar) with a nearby settlement providing it service (Markarth/Ivarstead). Add to that newcomers. And Ayleid ruins. It sounds like a great concept, can't wait to more of your work on it.

It should be noted that the College of the Voice is a "somewhat" modern institution, commisioned by Tiber Septim a mere 450 years or so before the events of SHOTN. I have an idea for a simple, circular structure using the stone texture of the Markarth set among others, but I will try to redraw my current concepts to fit better with the set.

I have been wondering, did you use bitter coast moss for the flora hanging from the cliff or do we have new models for stuff like that? I was unable to locate it and it would come really handy, I tend to molest cavern_root_leaf models way too much

Yes, I just used the Bitter Coast moss - they don't look particularly 'Vvardenfell', and we have used them in several places already.

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This map shows roughly my current concept of the city and surrounding terrain. It's more a representation of where things are located and not how they will look. I will try and get a good overview shot of progress soon.

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The palisades look much better than the walls, I'm glad you went with that now. Are you going to place the farm buildings near the docks now, or how do we have to interpret those 'x'es in your first pic?

Agreed about the walls, looks good with the Direnni walls as well! Glad you like it.

There will be farm buildings both outside the southern city walls and the dock, just not a regular village, but more spread out. I crossed out those areas because they were just a clutter of meshes put there to be placed later, the road will still go through there.

This is looking amazing, reorich. I love your tightly packed, elevated design.

I was a little concerned at first that Markarth wouldn't look much like a major Nord stronghold with only a wooden palisade to protect it, but I think the cliffs will make up for the lack of stone walls, plus Elfstone Keep is more than imposing enough.

Progress shots.

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Looks great based on the screens. When can we get a file?

Your first screen shows exactly what I've been hoping for regarding the usage of these houses. I also like the regional style switch you have performed. Everything is looking quite promising here.

Yeti - Soon! I'm having some TESAME problems.

Worsas - Thanks, I still haven't figured out the regional style comletely. A mix between east and west of this claim with dry grass and some snow.

Can you still make it a little bit less spread out? I count 11 cells that will contain objects belonging to Markarth, I'd prefer 3-4 + keep. The wall outline sort of spans 6 cells. For Stirk, I had 43 interiors in 4 cells, and that includes the docks. I do realize you named only three cells here, but if you continue with this particular layout you'll end up with cells containing buildings and palisades, which are not called "Markarth", or a whole lot of them with this name.

Not trying to ruin everything here, I just don't want the KW cell issue here again, plus we don't want the map to be a damn clusterfuck with these icons if this isn't really a major city like Karthwasten. There's three cells between the docks and the keep that could easily contain the whole city, and it would be less annoying for players regarding long distances in town, too. For instance, I don't see the point of the easternmost path leading to the southern gate, if you removed that you'd already have three cells less that'd otherwise be half-city, half-water. I also don't see a problem with those cells spanning the distance between castle and docks making up the rest of the city, why go so far into the south?

Btw, the keep is fantastic, so is the western part of the island with that bridge and all. I really love how you walk around that huge cliff, looking at the fortress, before actually arriving in town. Perfect stuff here.

Yes, it is an issue that I'm aware of, but haven't tackled yet. Three cells of proper city was always the plan though, but the eastern cliffside is a mess when it comes to cell borders. The eastern pathway was just trying something out, when we talked about vertical variation in the city. The small direnni gate in the north of the upper quarter seems too small for a real road through the city, where lots of carts and people pass through. But I'll try to take everything into consideration, the city itself is still a WIP mess after all.

I will see what I can do about collecting the city, but it proves rather hard when working on predefined landscapes. Not that it can't be done.

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I've added a shrine to Kyne on the island in the northern lake.

Now, that I like!

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A wee update.

Looking great, roerich. It appears you changed the layout quite a bit. Does that mean Scamp's cell border concerns have been addressed? Also, did you move the location of the College of the Voice, (I realize the stone structure you had in place was a placeholder) or did you replace it with one of the wooden buildings?

Yes, the cell border issue is solved completely and the college has been moved. A placeholder model is viewed in the bottom left of the screenshot (and yes, that's a Vivec statue - another placeholder). I will post a more extensive update and a file sometime soon, perhaps on sunday if I have the time.

This levelled town layout is just about perfect, because it plays well with the levelling of the landscape everywhere, as it does with the design of the houses and the symbolical role of Markarth and the Nords in the Reach.

You nailed it with the new layout. Exactly what I had in mind.