EDIT: Actually, what would be even cooler would be to get everyone on a server and make a town and/or a Dragur ruin. How cool would that be??? (omg I need to stop now I'm getting too excited)
Oooh, that would be awesome!
I literally never use bricks, but I'd consider using it for roofing if they resembled some kind of shingles like these, or maybe just a more ornate/clean stone material for general use to go with the stone slabs. That's all I can think of, since I haven't seen anything that looks like red brick either.
Although if you're inspired to take some pics during the process, I certainly won't object.
Hmm, for some reason I got it in my head that you asked for screenshots of stuff using the pack at one point. Oh well, I won't make it a big priority then.
Since I'm pretty much stumped for what to do with the other stuff you need ideas for, some of my ideas could start becoming pretty far-fetched, but here we go:
- Rails: Maybe... rope? While it makes little to no sense for minecarts to be going across it, it might look cool on tents, straw roofs or on the ground somewhere.
- Glowstone/Glowstone Lamps: Perhaps make one of them like the glowing rocks in Ustengrav (those might work better as a command block or beacon, I'm not sure):
I don't know how much further you can push the theme with the remaining blocks that you need ideas for; most of them don't seem to have parallels in Skyrim. Aside from that, I checked out the updated textures and everything is just as I'd expected. I especially like the colors you used for the wool, very nice work!
All of the new stuff is looking great, I can't complain. If you end up using the less refined sandstone top, it'd be cool if you made the edges of it look like they are being covered with sand to make it blend in a little better when used in roads and such.
Oh, and I'd also like an updated version of the pack if that's okay. I'll get to hunting for some maps and maybe even start a new build using the pack to get some screenshots. About the use of shaders, I know a specific setup to where it doesn't do anything except for add shadows, so it keeps the textures looking more like they actually are and doesn't change the colors or contrast. If I were to use shaders, would you prefer that or the extra-fancy ones that change everything?
Oh man, those logs are too good. I like the sand and rocky look of the sandstone, but something seems off about the smooth sandstone... maybe give it a bit more depth, or try a design with larger bricks? It might just be the way it's used in the screenshot, so I'd have to try it out on some buildings to see how it looks there... and do I see random CTM on the spruce planks? Really nice touch.
About the mod screenshots, upon looking at other images I noticed that the overall atmosphere was good in the desert areas but the textures weren't really anything special (not to mention trying to play it was a pain; the storyline is terribly broken up and hard to follow).
I really like the idea of having apocrypha be the End. And seekers just have that creep/lurk factor that goes well with endermen. Too bad they're bulky. Oh well.
Also, do you have any ideas/refs for sand and sandstone to contribute? I really want to do those-- the lack of sand is bothering me.
Ehh, the only deserts I know of in the Elder Scrolls series are the Alik'r Desert in Hammerfell and Elsweyr, both of which don't have any in-game reference that I know of aside from mods. There are rumors going around that the next Skyrim DLC will somehow involve the Redguard race, so that hopefully means that you'll have something genuine to base those textures on in a couple months. I do have another idea, though! Right above Riften is the hold of Eastmarch, which is a very dry-looking area and would probably do best as a desert without referencing any mods. Here are some screenshots (lots of 'em):
Sandstone Top
Sandstone Side
Sand
...and a view of the area.
If that doesn't work, I can always give that Moonpath to Elsweyr mod a try and get some screenshots from that. From a building standpoint, I don't really expect sandstone to be very unique as it gets a lot less useful if a texture pack tries to get fancy with it. On the topic of deserts, could you make clay a reddish color? It really looks nice that way if you use it as stripes in sandy mountains to give a layered look to them.
I vote for chiseled stone bricks becoming standing stones when stacked. You couldn't do the beacon though, but most standing stones in Skyrim don't do that beam of light.
It was my initial thought to use chiseled stone bricks as well. All of the standing stones do emit a beam of light upon accepting the ability, but it fades away shortly after. I just figured that it would be easier to tell what it was if it had the beam passing through it.
I'm liking these mob ideas, and the concept of endermen being dragon priests is pretty much as valid as my suggestion of them being Seekers--who drop Black Books which are used to enter Apocrypha (the End)--though it might be a bit strange to see so many dragon priests in one spot whilst fighting the dragon, especially since they don't start off hostile. And though the endermen being Seekers might make a bit more sense, some people may not even recognize them if they don't have the DLC; so both ideas are about equally good. Either way, I'm sure Steel will make it work.
EDIT: On second thought, I'm still pretty sure that the end being Apocrypha and such would probably fit it best. Looking forward to the next update!
That's not a bug, that's the highlight on the edge of the stone. Unless you're referring to the darker region to the left of it, in which case that's the edge of the brick, which is partially visible.
I'll elaborate; the 'edge' just seems too flat when it's right next to that brighter area where the highlight is. It's just fine when used on the opposite side where it's darker, but I feel like something similar to these sloppy one-minute edits would work better:
Maybe it's just me, so I'd understand if you didn't feel the need to change it.
I was doing some testing to see what might work best as a standing stone, and in the process I came up with this:
Unfortunately, pistons seem to be the only 'solid' block that beacon light can pass through aside from glass. It's pretty cool how you can set this up to give a boost to the player while nearby, and it lights up the area too! Also, a bug with the stone bricks:
I'd just shade that area a bit or merge it with the grout. Nice work on the planks!
-I'm not sure what you mean by grass blurriness.... pics please?
I was up all night working and my vision went a little blurry sometimes, upon looking at it again I have no complaints.
Oh, some questions/ideas. I assume that some of you may know the map by BlockFortress, and maybe when the pack gets further in development you could contact him to get a compatible link of this pack on the map page. It gets quite a lot of downloads every day despite being a 3-month-old map, so it'd be a good way to spread the word provided you can work something out. I suppose jungle textures could be as simple as the trees from Elsweyr, so not too much different from any other pack. Also, would you consider using CTM to make one of the blocks look like a standing stone when it's a two-high pillar?
And I may as well throw in a screenshot of a house that I've created and modified to not have default textures in it; no fancy editing or shaders.
I'll get the ideas out of the way first. I was thinking that for the End you could use biome-specific textures to make it look like Apocrypha while you're there, and in the overworld the endstone could look more like a white building material like on the Hearthfire houses (provided you don't use quartz for that). Another neat addition to complement the height-specific dwemer textures would be to have large mushrooms look similar to the ones in Blackreach at a certain depth.
(SPOILERS: Further explaining the Apocrypha concept)
Near the end of the Dragonborn DLC, you fight the dragon priest Miraak in Apocrypha, who has control over many dragons and makes the conversion much more believable with the dragon being there. To get there, you need to read one of many Black Books, which can be retextured Eyes of Ender that you place into the portal to enter. Endermen could potentially be Seekers, who also exist in that realm and commonly have books as loot anyway.
Onto the first impressions of the pack... sorry if I can't say much here, you have plenty of other testers that have already done a great job of pointing out bugs.
I gotta say, I wasn't really sure if my buildings that have already been completed would look good in this pack since it follows a theme, but I was surprised to find that I didn't have much a problem at all with this (keeping in mind that a lot of my builds use currently untextured blocks, of course). I'm specifically impressed by the ores; I never thought I would say that I didn't have a problem with ores being so similar, but this design just... works. However, I have one little gripe that I think is unique to me so far; the edge of the grass on the side seems a little bit blurry close-up, but it's really no big deal. Everything else is great, but could you possibly have an alt for the glass that excludes the dragon heads..? *hides*
Anyway, I hope that I was in some way helpful. Thanks again for letting me test!
Being a long-time lurker of the texture pack forum and a fan of your packs, I figured I'd make an account so I could offer to be a beta tester. I have plenty of free time to test new additions to the pack, take screenshots (with shaders, if you want!) as well as give examples from Skyrim for my ideas since I have all three DLCs, each completed. I'm quite selective with what texture packs I use--being a builder and such--but from what I see here this one could easily become one of my few favorites. I already have a few ideas typed out and ready for a post/PM, so I'd be glad to share them with you! Great work so far, by the way; this really has that Skyrim vibe.
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Oooh, that would be awesome!
I literally never use bricks, but I'd consider using it for roofing if they resembled some kind of shingles like these, or maybe just a more ornate/clean stone material for general use to go with the stone slabs. That's all I can think of, since I haven't seen anything that looks like red brick either.
0
Hmm, for some reason I got it in my head that you asked for screenshots of stuff using the pack at one point. Oh well, I won't make it a big priority then.
Since I'm pretty much stumped for what to do with the other stuff you need ideas for, some of my ideas could start becoming pretty far-fetched, but here we go:
- Rails: Maybe... rope? While it makes little to no sense for minecarts to be going across it, it might look cool on tents, straw roofs or on the ground somewhere.
- Glowstone/Glowstone Lamps: Perhaps make one of them like the glowing rocks in Ustengrav (those might work better as a command block or beacon, I'm not sure):
I don't know how much further you can push the theme with the remaining blocks that you need ideas for; most of them don't seem to have parallels in Skyrim. Aside from that, I checked out the updated textures and everything is just as I'd expected. I especially like the colors you used for the wool, very nice work!
0
Oh, and I'd also like an updated version of the pack if that's okay. I'll get to hunting for some maps and maybe even start a new build using the pack to get some screenshots. About the use of shaders, I know a specific setup to where it doesn't do anything except for add shadows, so it keeps the textures looking more like they actually are and doesn't change the colors or contrast. If I were to use shaders, would you prefer that or the extra-fancy ones that change everything?
0
About the mod screenshots, upon looking at other images I noticed that the overall atmosphere was good in the desert areas but the textures weren't really anything special (not to mention trying to play it was a pain; the storyline is terribly broken up and hard to follow).
0
Ehh, the only deserts I know of in the Elder Scrolls series are the Alik'r Desert in Hammerfell and Elsweyr, both of which don't have any in-game reference that I know of aside from mods. There are rumors going around that the next Skyrim DLC will somehow involve the Redguard race, so that hopefully means that you'll have something genuine to base those textures on in a couple months. I do have another idea, though! Right above Riften is the hold of Eastmarch, which is a very dry-looking area and would probably do best as a desert without referencing any mods. Here are some screenshots (lots of 'em):
Sandstone Side
Sand
...and a view of the area.
If that doesn't work, I can always give that Moonpath to Elsweyr mod a try and get some screenshots from that. From a building standpoint, I don't really expect sandstone to be very unique as it gets a lot less useful if a texture pack tries to get fancy with it. On the topic of deserts, could you make clay a reddish color? It really looks nice that way if you use it as stripes in sandy mountains to give a layered look to them.
0
It was my initial thought to use chiseled stone bricks as well. All of the standing stones do emit a beam of light upon accepting the ability, but it fades away shortly after. I just figured that it would be easier to tell what it was if it had the beam passing through it.
I'm liking these mob ideas, and the concept of endermen being dragon priests is pretty much as valid as my suggestion of them being Seekers--who drop Black Books which are used to enter Apocrypha (the End)--though it might be a bit strange to see so many dragon priests in one spot whilst fighting the dragon, especially since they don't start off hostile. And though the endermen being Seekers might make a bit more sense, some people may not even recognize them if they don't have the DLC; so both ideas are about equally good. Either way, I'm sure Steel will make it work.
EDIT: On second thought, I'm still pretty sure that the end being Apocrypha and such would probably fit it best. Looking forward to the next update!
0
I'll elaborate; the 'edge' just seems too flat when it's right next to that brighter area where the highlight is. It's just fine when used on the opposite side where it's darker, but I feel like something similar to these sloppy one-minute edits would work better:
Maybe it's just me, so I'd understand if you didn't feel the need to change it.
0
Unfortunately, pistons seem to be the only 'solid' block that beacon light can pass through aside from glass. It's pretty cool how you can set this up to give a boost to the player while nearby, and it lights up the area too! Also, a bug with the stone bricks:
I'd just shade that area a bit or merge it with the grout. Nice work on the planks!
1
I was up all night working and my vision went a little blurry sometimes, upon looking at it again I have no complaints.
Oh, some questions/ideas. I assume that some of you may know the map by BlockFortress, and maybe when the pack gets further in development you could contact him to get a compatible link of this pack on the map page. It gets quite a lot of downloads every day despite being a 3-month-old map, so it'd be a good way to spread the word provided you can work something out. I suppose jungle textures could be as simple as the trees from Elsweyr, so not too much different from any other pack. Also, would you consider using CTM to make one of the blocks look like a standing stone when it's a two-high pillar?
And I may as well throw in a screenshot of a house that I've created and modified to not have default textures in it; no fancy editing or shaders.
0
I'll get the ideas out of the way first. I was thinking that for the End you could use biome-specific textures to make it look like Apocrypha while you're there, and in the overworld the endstone could look more like a white building material like on the Hearthfire houses (provided you don't use quartz for that). Another neat addition to complement the height-specific dwemer textures would be to have large mushrooms look similar to the ones in Blackreach at a certain depth.
(SPOILERS: Further explaining the Apocrypha concept)
Onto the first impressions of the pack... sorry if I can't say much here, you have plenty of other testers that have already done a great job of pointing out bugs.
I gotta say, I wasn't really sure if my buildings that have already been completed would look good in this pack since it follows a theme, but I was surprised to find that I didn't have much a problem at all with this (keeping in mind that a lot of my builds use currently untextured blocks, of course). I'm specifically impressed by the ores; I never thought I would say that I didn't have a problem with ores being so similar, but this design just... works. However, I have one little gripe that I think is unique to me so far; the edge of the grass on the side seems a little bit blurry close-up, but it's really no big deal. Everything else is great, but could you possibly have an alt for the glass that excludes the dragon heads..? *hides*
Anyway, I hope that I was in some way helpful. Thanks again for letting me test!
0