umac is a massive Dwemer ruin being created for the upcoming Silgrad Tower v3.0, featuring all-new models (including a complete interior tileset from TheImperialDragon). This action-packed location will be a nice change of pace from most of the other locations we have currently, which are mainly homes in our cities. Named after the Dwemer King who fought alongside Lord Nerevar at Red Mountain, Dumac will not be "just" a Dwemer ruin but the Dwemer ruin, dwarfing (pardon the pun) quest locations in Oblivion as well as the original ruins seen in TES3 by its massive size.

The idea of Dumac, featured in our TES3 mod where it was modded by Zalzidrax, was resurrected for the Oblivion mod when InsanitySorrow joined the project and tweaked his mod idea titled Return of the Dwemer to fit with our concept of Dumac. Unfortunately InsanitySorrow decided to step down as leader of Dumac on March 23rd. But by that time, interest for the location among the team's modders had heated up and it didn't take long before it was decided that our core member Bob196045 would take over leadership of its development while Seniosh would take charge of the modding process (as Bob currently doesn't have access to the game). Bob is also known for heading the team's Quest department, where he produces excellent quest drafts and keeps the quest idea pot stirring. Seniosh recently completed the Silgrad Glassmine modding job, which I (Razorwing) was happy to be a part of as well by creating glass gemrocks (with textures from ev1).

Here are a few wip images of the Dwemer tileset:

- The core team decided to keep certain models accessible only to distinguished modders, while the public release contains lower-quality replacements to keep the mod working properly for others. The reason for that is twofold. One, to lessen the risk of our most valued models being ripped. Two, to offer an incentive for modders who haven't yet risen to ST Modder status to work towards attaining it.

- The second part of that reason is almost the most important one. Simply put we've always had a shortage of modders, especially modders who apply themselves, and at least to me it feels like we've exhausted every other means of making it attractive to really JOIN the team.
We have a strong core team these days, fortunately; several guys working on big jobs; a few but talented modellers and texture artists; a handful of modders who work on and off; and then countless of hangarounds who seem to spend a lot of time here but don't really do anything. It's the latter category I personally would like to see get involved with the team, those who don't really do anything, I'm not critisizing you guys who are already hard at work.
Since making the prospect of becoming ST Modder attractive is an important part of the reason we instituted this system, there is an intent behind making the public assets look worse than the full models. (They're not intended to be misaligned, I'm working towards fixing that)

- Becoming an ST Modder doesn't only involve having access to the full models. It also involves having access to The Dungeon, The Source, The Warehouse, and a new discussion board where we can discuss and plan the development leading up to the next release. You can no longer access those boards unless being promoted to ST Modder. That does not mean we want to shut anyone out. That means we want as many as possible to step up and become ST Modders.

- The core team decides who has risen to ST Modder status and when. The ones who were preselected at the start of the system were chosen carefully. The key ingredient for us in deciding who will be promoted is the quality and volume of submitted work, whether it be claims or models or textures or something else. This means that if a person is working on a large job that hasn't been submitted yet they can't be promoted based on that, even if we think they're doing a great job and value the work they do highly. Dumac, Ebbedin and Kedal are perfect examples; if playable, sufficiently completed versions are submitted, reviewed and merged I would be wholeheartedly in favor of promoting the modders who made it happen. And I look forward to that!

- Given these reasons, and given that only submitted content is counted so the following doesn't apply to Dumac/Ebbedin/Kedal and similar large jobs:
The fact will always remain that attaining ST Modder status is within everyone's reach. We don't promote people by grouping them into "like" and "don't like" categories, we don't keep people out because we want to play powergames on them, we promote them based on the quality and quantity of their submitted work - period. Given that fact, the only obstacle towards rising to ST Modder would be if you didn't want to work with the Silgrad Tower team... and if that's the case it doesn't leave much room for going forward.

I hope I was able to clarify some of the issues that were brought up in the above posts, and look forward to seeing each and every one of you on the 'other side'.

oday, March 21st, finally marks the release of Silgrad Tower v2.0 which we've been working on since early December. It's been exhausting for sandor, me (Razorwing) and TheImperialDragon to get the release finalized, since the process invariably entails rather boring technical work like bughunting, ticking thousands of vwd checkboxes, and in the case of this release, all the rework that went into situating Soluthis and Steadhelm on the singular worldspace. Ultimately it's of course rewarding to be able to put together our best release yet, but I think I speak for all three of us when I say we're all looking forward to getting back to doing the things we love the most about modding for Oblivion.

Head on over to the Downloads section for links, videos and screenshots.

What's new in Silgrad Tower v2.0?

Where to begin :D

The landmass has been updated and reworked since the last release, and what's more, our two cities are now situated directly on that landmass. You can swim out into the Inner Sea from Steadhelm, or gaze out over the huge sprawling Redoran city from atop Reich Parkeep's city walls, or run from city to city without having to see a load screen. This amazing relocation of our cities as good as seamlessly from their old worldspaces would not have been possible without sandor's skill and dedication in seeing it through.

A new travel system, dubbed the 'Road to Silgrad Tower' (seen in the video), replaces the old portal system as the main transportation to Morrowind. Apart from looking and feeling better than the old system, it's also more intuitive for players since they can follow the roadsigns from Cheydinhal and further makes our mod compatible with the open cities mod. The system was a joint effort of sandor (modding/generation), Razorwing (modelling) and TheImperialDragon (dialogue/modding) and also enjoys the wonderful roadsign textures created by ev1. For the release after this one we hope to have a long, exciting dungeon crawl between Cyrodiil and Morrowind -- perhaps contained in it's own whole separate worldspace á la Pale Pass. Alternatively, or perhaps to compliment it, we'll continue investigating the possibility of open travel by way of invisible automatic loaddoors which in theory would transport you seamlessly from the Cheydinhal region to an identical reagion on our landmass.

Reich Parkeep has been given an almost total graphical overhaul. The new city wall system is exceedinly intricate in design, and quite a sight to behold. Here and there along the wall system are exterior staircases, which you can traverse to get on top of the walls and walk around up there -- sometimes lending itself as a perilous shortcut to Soluthis, for those bold enough to jump. The houses have been retextured, as has the city's custom sidewalks whose cobblestones have a really deep parallax effect that at times can be breathtaking. Reich Parkeep has it's own lampposts now as well, different from the otherwise unique Redoran lightposts that light up Soluthis. If you check out the town you'll notice more new light sources as well, such as traditional TES3 wall sconces, Imperial lanterns, and even carryable torches reminiscant of the ones from TES3!

Sandor has successfully transferred Steadhelm to our main worldspace, and continued its development by leaps and bounds compared to the last release. There's many sights to be had in town, whether exploring the many fortifications or enjoying the view of the Inner Sea from Steadhelm's docks. Steadhelm is billed as an Imperial charter town, so - much like the charter towns in Morrowind - it's decidedly Imperial in architecture and atmosphere. However the Imperial influences doesn't extend to nature and terrain, as you'll see Morrowind-style rocks and flora as well as trees unique to our mod. The town is still being worked on, and needs settlers -- so if you're in the mood to pick up a claim, swing by the Steadhelm claims board and find one you like. Or better yet, check out the town in-game and see if you find an empty house where you'd like to let for instance your avatar (in-game persona) to live. Creating more quests in Steadhelm is another concern, and indeed an important concern for the mod as a whole, so if you have those skills and is interested in modding a part of the Morrowind Province - please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. In other Steadhelm news, one of our best texture artists - ev1 - has retextured the city guard armor, as well as designed a tapestry with the city's new logo (a firefly).