EBMv2 - a new good start

These last two days I had a bit of time for me and put in practice what I had been planning while I was away from the CK. Hence I've figured out how many shelves I would need to host all the books from the TES games, and quickly built a new, smaller library with a cozy atmosphere. I'll probably work on the lighting some more later on, and the blue flame may not make it to the end... I mean, it was too tempting not to put it in the scene but I'm not sure it's necessary to have it there. I'll also try to make the ceiling look a bit better as well. Not sure how yet.

Now I'm facing the issue that I can't get this damn NVIDIA dds plugin to run and so I can't edit textures. Seeing that this library will host about 700 books it would be better if they weren't all the same or so close. So if a kind soul could give me a little help with this tricky matter I would be delighted.
Note that I can edit the diffuse maps myself if I'm provided files Photoshop can read, and send them back for compression... (it sucks, I know)
I would be very glad to also create a set of retextured quills, inkwells and signs to label the various categories of the library.
I'd like to add quests related to the mod as well but details will come in time. One thing after the other =)

Tutorial: Adding Help Files to Skyrim's Main Menu

Object: Add Help files to Skyrim's main menu.

Difficulty: Very Easy

Time Needed: Besides the time needed to write the files, about two minutes.

What You Will Need:

• The Creation Kit. The Creation Kit is the modding tool for Skyrim, and can be downloaded from Steam.
• Some previous understanding of the Creation Kit (preferably).
• The text for the Help file that you want to add.

There are a number of ways to add guides and Help files to your mod. The most common way is to use a book or a Message Box menu system. With the addition of MCM (Mod Configuration Menu) to the SkyUI,  it is now also possible to add them to your mod's MCM. 

This tutorial focuses on adding Help files directly to Skyrim's normal main menu. When you press 'Esc' ingame, you can save, load, read your journal, review your achievements, etc. There are also Help messages for guiding the player in how to use the game. It is possible to add your own messages to this list. To do this, two things need to be done:

1) Create a new message by navigating to Miscellaneous > Messages in the Object Window, right-clicking in the right-hand panel, and clicking 'New'.

• Write or copy the text that you want to be read in the Help menu.
• Make sure that the Messagebox checkbox is checked.
• I suggest that you follow the naming scheme that the other Help Message have: "Help[Topic]Long".
• Ensure that there are no Menu Buttons or Conditions. Click 'Ok' to create the Message.

2) Navigate to "Miscellaneous > FormList" in the Object Window and find the "HelpManualPC" FormList. Double-click to edit it. Now go back to the Messages category, select your Help Message, and then drag it into the FormList.

3) Save your plugin. Start Skyrim.exe and select your plugin from the Data Files. Begin the game, load a save, and press 'Esc' to test your modification. Navigate to the 'Help' menu, and look for your message. The Help messages are categorized alphabetically by the Message's name.

There you go! Your Help files have now been added to Skyrim's Main Menu.

Winter Break Modding Project

I'm thinking about working on a Skyrim modding project over winter break. Unlike my previous projects, this one would involve storytelling and quests rather than gameplay recoding. Are there any of y'all that would be interested in working with me for a few weeks between semesters to create an interesting and unique modification to Skyrim? I am looking for people with any of the following skills:

Story/quest writing
Character design
Art/3d-modeling
Programming
Level design
Voice Acting
Fictional worldbuilding
Game testing

The concept for the project has already been developed some, but I would like input while developing the rest of it and help with creating the actual mod. For those of you who have played Skyrim but do not have a PC copy, I may consider PAYING to get you a copy of the game for your PC.

Obviously, you will need to have a PC capable of running the game if you are going to work on the coding, modeling, or level design. You would also need to be willing to work with me and any others on the team, as well as be able to devote some time each week during the break to the project.

If you are interested, then please message me and I can give you more details on the project. I can guarantee that you will find plenty of interesting work if you do join. :-)

Once the project is complete then it would be released for free online for players to download. A donation link would be available for fans, and any donations would be split with you.

If you are interested in my previous modding work, you can check out the following pages:

Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/users/1266423
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198008458024/myworkshopfiles
Modding Blog: http://tesmods.blogspot.com/


My mods have been downloaded over 40,000 people and viewed by likely 300,000.

EBM WIP: plans for EBM v2

Due to real world life I was not able to post any update about EBM for months, neither could I work on the mod, not even could I play Skyrim! (how bad is that!?) But I kept on thinking and planning what should be done for the v2... Overall I plan to redo everything in way to get the mod as clean as possible. And I think the library it should feature might be nicknamed "Little Apocrypha".

What EBMv2 should contain

• More new books
• Books from the previous games, from Arena to Oblivion (yes!)
• A giant secret library to sort and store all those books in several samples
• Bibliographies listing books related to a same topic (ex: Dwemers) and where to find them in the library, and possibly compendiums with excerpts related to a given topic
• (optional) retextured assets to serve as signs to find your way in the library
• (optional) more textures for book covers (including mere color variations)

Workflow

1. Listing and sorting all the books in categories and sub-categories
2. Planning the spatial organization of the library
3. Building and testing the library cells
4. Adding, placing and compiling all the new books
5. Test, fixing, test, fixing...
6. Release

What's being done currently
[update] I finished listing and sorting the books, basing me on the Imperial Library. So far I have listed 331 titles (not books but titles of one-shots and series) and 197 of those titles are yet in Skyrim though some series (like the Wolf Queen) are incomplete. However I didn't include books we aren't supposed to find (such as the Mysterium Xarxes, diaries and other quest-related books). This makes yet around 200 books to format and implement and some include pictures.
I tag the books with keywords about their content that will help for bibliographies, and assign them to fitting categories which are divided into:

• Physics:
• History (various eras)
• Geopolitics (Nirn, Imperial Provinces, Guilds & Factions)
• Fauna & Flora (races, creatures, plants, minerals)
• Arts & Crafts (literature, smithing, cooking, etc.)

• Metaphysics:
• Monomyth
• Aedra
• Daedra (Princes, Lorkhan, Oblivion)
• Cults (Orders, consequences of their deeds on Nirn)
• Myths & Legends
• Arcane Arts (magic of all schools and kinds)
• Pain & Care (diseases, curses, etc.)

The goal of this sorting is to plan properly the level building of the library.



How to help
As you guess many books will fall into many categories but this way I hope to make the place as handy as possible for players who like to play scholars. I don't know how many there are but surely more than I think.
And of course, any help in the sorting and tagging would be very helpful, or if you've already created information compendiums or so, it would surely be very fitting.

If someone wishes to do some retexturing I'd be very interested as well. For book covers of course, something based on the Book of the Dragonborn or Spell Tomes could be nice since those book feature a different textures for back and front covers, allowing to differentiate them more. But also for some assets such as banners and rugs that would be used as signs for the different parts of the library.

If you have ideas and suggestions, they're also very welcomed of course.

Writers & Modders Needed - Want to post on our blog?

One of the primary goals for this blog was that it become a central website for Skyrim modding news. To further that goal, I am allowing modders to request to use my blog for their mods. If I give you permission, then you will be given posting permission. With this permission you will be able to post news about your mods, important guides or readmes, announcements of new features or mods, and requests for help or team members. In addition, you will be given your own Page on the sidebar for all of your mods, news, and relevant information.

Because I don't want to be swamped with e-mails, and since I want the modders on this blog to be committed, skilled modders, I do have some restrictions.

Restrictions:

• Commitment. I need to know that you aren't going to either disappear from this blog or give up halfway through a mod. I understand if you find out that a mod idea is impossible or too difficult, or if real life stuff gets in the way of modding. However, I need to know that you are at least going to try to finish your work, and that you will post at least once a month.
• Skill. You must have completed at least one mod, and it must have been downloaded at least 1000 times. I am not trying to be mean to small-time modders, but I want merely want to make sure if you join my blog you will bring readers and that you make great mods.
• Be easy to work with. Be nice to readers, write good posts, respond to comments, etc.

Besides those restrictions, all you need to do is send me (Woverdude) an e-mail with some information about you and what you will post. Include links to a mod(s) that you have made. If you are interested in this, please contact me. I will take a look at your mod(s), maybe download them and try them out. If I like your mods, and think that you'd be a great addition to this blog, then I will e-mail you back and give you posting permission.

Skyrim News and Tutorials:

In addition, I would like the Skyrim Modding Blog to become a hub for Skyrim tips and news. If you keep up with the current Elder Scrolls news and write well, I would love to have you as a news writer. Send me an e-mail with some information about yourself, how closely you watch Elder Scrolls news, and (preferably) an example of some article or post that you have written.

Also, if you are a Skyrim modder who isn't looking for a place to post news, but would like to write tutorials, then contact me. I have already written a number of tutorials, plan on writing more, and have a page for them. If you've never written a tutorial, take a look at those to see how they work. If you want to write tutorials, shoot me an e-mail with some info about yourself and with an example of a tutorial that you have written. If you have not written any tutorials yet, then please write one for me to look at.

A note about posting frequency: I will not have the same restrictions for tutorial and news writers. In terms of frequency, I ask only that you post at least once a month. Also, if you are not going to be available for contacting or writing for more than a couple of weeks, please let me know.

Way of the Monk: Lore - The Apostates

In an effort to fit my mod into the game lore, I have written three books that will explain the history and organization of the Cult, a group of people who specialize in unarmed combat. This book is about the Apostates: men who left the Cult and now use their powers for personal gain.

The Apostates

By Gurnjad Shormirisson

Wanderer of the Way

Apostates are foul men of greed. They were once men of the Way: Initiates, Wanderers, and Elders. But they abandoned justice for power!

There are some of us who, once they learned what power the Way teaches us, saw how they could abuse that privilage for personal gain. Such are the Apostates. They did not depart all at once, but each as they saw opportunity to please their own greed. Occasionally they do find leadership and form a new Cult. More often than not, however, they become outcasts. Their hearts are so vile and corrupted that not even the baser members of society accept them into their Guilds. In addition, who would, when they wield such power as we do? 

Avoid the Apostates, you Initiates! Apply justice to them, you Wanderers! Scorn them with wisdom, you Elders! Shun them, you Pilgrims! Avoid the Apostate, and your Path will be safe and without corruption. But if you stray upon their Way, then you will veer from the Path, and your heart will be corrupted.

Tutorial: Writing good TES books

Object: Tips to write a book that fits in the world of Skyrim

Difficulty: Medium

Time Needed: Quite some, depending on your skills

Things you will need:

• Some skills in writing, preferably
• A little time

What is a TES book?

1. A TES book is a piece of text designed to fit in a game and this is something you must remember. What this means is that writing a TES book is not about writing a real book that can be printed, carried all around, bookmarked, anotated, etc. It is about writing a book that will be:

• Read on screen
• Has no numbered pages
• Can't be bookmarked
• In which you can't skip pages 10 by 10 but only 1 by 1

2. This means your book can't be too long or reading it won't be the smoothest experience. Among the longest books of the original TES games are those of the Real Barenziah series. Back to Morrowind I would go to Jobasha's Rare Books and read the whole series, totally hooked by the story. Back then it was a great chance pages had numbers in case I had to quit the game for a while and then try to find out where I was in the book, scrolling longly until I hit the right page. Now in Skyrim there are no more numbers on the pages... figure out the mess if you need to find back the page where you stopped in the middle of a long story without spoiling yourself. So what should you do?

• Limit your word count around 4000 words. 6000~8000 should really be a max for a stand-alone story.
• If your story is longer than this, split it into several tomes and make it a series.

Write in Tamrielic

1. A TES book should fit in the ES games not only from its design but mostly from its content of course. You don't want to hang around Solitude's Bard's College, open a book there and read a story about an Italian mushroom-eater plumber named Mario trying to find a princess in various castles. If you were to write such a story, please, make it fit in the lore or change your mind!
In exemple you can write the story of Mario, the Breton, and his misadventures in Sadrith Mora, getting totally skooma-high and starting to eat the mushroom homes of the Telvanni. As a Daedra worshiper, Mario seeks for Azura in his delirium and tries to conjure her. Unfortunately only Sheogorath answers and here comes a dark seducer... A great tale among Khajiiti slaves needing to cheer up.

2. Use Tamrielic names. Be it for your characters or for yourself as an author. Mario is a correct name for a Breton or eventually for an Imperial (though Marius would surely be more fitting) but surely not for an Orc or a Khajiit. The ten different races of Tamriel each have their own features regarding naming, try to stick to them as much as possible. Look the names of existing characters of a same race to understand how to compose new ones.
You can look the UESP's name lists or you can also generate lists easily with Tamriel Rebuilt's name generator but beware: it uses names of existing NPCs.

Here goes a little list of facts:

• Breton - Names often have a Latin origin, mostly (old) French and Italian (François Motierre, Vicente Valtieri). Sometimes it can also sound more English (Cassyr Whitley) or Latin (Socucius Ergala). Breton names feature a first and last name.
  
• Imperial - Names have a Latin origin, often ending by "us" or "o" for men (Hieronymus, Crassius, Toutius, Gergio, Falco) and by "a" for women (Camilla, Vilena, Simplicia). Family names often end the same way with "us", "a", "o" (Sextius, Curio, Cosma). Latin words are often a base for most names. Imperial names feature a first and last name.
  
• Redguard - Redguard names are a little more tricky as they look like a mix of Breton (Alonzo, Neville), Imperial (Demetrius, Varnado), sometimes almost elvish or sounding quite tribal (Phintias, Shenk, Domba, Karlirah). This reflects well the nomade aspect of Redguard as the race counts many sailors and adventurers. I suggest you to refer to name lists to check if your Redguard name would be fitting. Redguard names usually feature only a first name. In rare cases there is also a last name (Gor Felim, Jim 'gentleman' Stacey).
  
• Nord - Names have a germanic or scandinavian origine so you can refer to naming lists found on the web to help you out. Names such as Hadvar, Brindolf or Onmir car fit for men, names such as Svenja, Mathilda or Olga can fit for women. Nords often bear a nickname (Olaf One-Eye, Hjalti Early-Beard, Talos Stormcrown), that reflects who they are in some way. These nicknames may also serve as family/clan names (Battle-Born, Grey-Mane).
  
• Altmer - Names often end with "ril", "mil", "nil", "rion", "mo", etc. for men (Carelcalmo, Tusamircil, Sinderion) , and end with "inde", "wen", "we", "lin", etc. for women (Elenwen, Palonirya, Estirdalin). Altmeri names and Bosmeri names share similarities due to their common elvish origins but there are still slight differences. Don't hesitate to refer to name lists if you don't feel comfortable with name creation and combine parts of different existing names. Altmeri names usually feature only a first name. In rare cases there is also a birthplace (Lathenil of Sunhold, Ocato of Firsthold), or in very rare cases, a last name (Mankar Camoran) or eventually a nickname (Rynandor the Bold).
  
• Bosmer - Names often end with "gor". "dor", "nor", "goth", "roth", "fin", "lem", etc. for men (Fargoth, Meldor, Thrangirfin), and end with "wen", "el", "il", "iel, etc. for women (Aranwen, Aredhel, Menelin).  Altmeri names and Bosmeri names share similarities due to their common elvish origins but there are still slight differences. Don't hesitate to refer to name lists if you don't feel comfortable with name creation and combine parts of different existing names. Altmeri names feature only a first name.
  
• Dunmer - Both first and last names often contain no more than 2 or 3 syllables and are very recognizable by their redundance (Eno Hlaalu, Tholer Saryoni, Nelos Ondrano). I won't list them all here and rather advice you to refer to naming lists, pick syllables, mix them up and come up with a name you like. Male and female names sound different (Sevil, Tovas, Reler VS Dovesi, Arvena, Lathasa). Dunmer names feature a frist and last name.
  
• Dunmer (Velothi) - These names often stand out by their complexity and great ammount of syllables and consonants (Ninirrasour, Mabarrabael). Some names though are shorter but the syllables are still recognizable (Hanssour, Maley, Sakin) and some are composed (Erur-Dan, Ulath-Pal). Just as modern Dunmer names, Velothi names are composed with a set of given syllables combined together. Family names are often quite long (Sashmassamsi, Assunbahanammu) and sometimes composed (Dun-Ahhe, Timsar-Dadisun) but share a similar pattern and set of given syllables. Velothi names feature a first and last name.
  
• Orc - First names often end with "mul", "muk", "bul", "buk", "zol", "ash", "shum", "zur", etc. for men (Durbul, Morbash, Murzol) and end with "ob", "og", "a", etc. for women (Murob, Umog, Mazoga). Family names are composed with gro+name for males, and gra+name for females. "gro" means "son of" and "gra" means "daughter of", thus the name coming after is usually a first name as well. However, to help their integration in the Imperial society, modern day Orcs tend to use the name of a famous ancestor rather than the name or the genitor. Thus Nash gro-Shurakh will name his daughter Mogra gra-Shurakh in spite of Mogra gra-Nash.
  
• Argonian - Names usually either count one word (Huzei, Milos) or are hyphenated (Haj-Ei, Jeelus-Tei) or are translated in Cyrodiilic (Nine-Toes, Only-He-Stands-There) when too hard to pronounce for non-Argonians. Argonian names are usually rather short, counting 2 or 3 syllables. I suggest you to refer to naming lists for inspiration. Argonian names feature only a first name or nickname. Note that the name they use is one received during a secret ritual of passage with the Hist, different from their birthname. We don't know how Argonians out of Black Marsh get their adult name.
  
• Khajiit - Male names usually count 1 or 2 syllables and often feature a title, usually hyphenated, like (S'Rava, J'skar, Dro-Basha), etc. These titles have meanings that shouldn't be interpreted litteraly ("Dar" means "thief" but rather implies swift agility or a quick mind). Female names rarely feature a title except "S'" and count 2 or 3 syllables (Ahnassi, Ajira, Kisimba). I suggest you to refer to naming lists for inspiration. Khajiiti names feature only a first name.

3. Avoid using vocabulary unfitting to the world of Tamriel. We've never seen Vodka or Tequila in Tamriel but we've seen Shein, Mazte, Sujamma, Colovian Brandy. There is no cocaine or heroine but there's Moon Sugar. You get the idea. If you want to mention such elements, make sure they exist in the lore and find an equivalent at need.

More tips to come as this post will be updated

(don't hesitate to contribute with your own advice!)