Alien void: Skyrim

Midgetalien

Hello Everyone!

Some of you may have noticed that this blog has not been update for a longtime. That is mainly due to me not getting around to updating it (LAZY!) and in part because I wanted to work on a fresh take to the blog.

I can now reveal that I have a new website;

>>> a new home for Alien Void<<<

Alien Void now lists my mods latest videos and has it's own separate blog space. So for anyone who is looking for a one stop place for my mods (all are linked to NEXUS MODS) and want to find out what is going on in my own little void so please check out the new website.

This blog will no longer be updated but will be still be available.

Midgetalien

Hello everyone,

I have picked a strange topic for this post but it is one that I have wanted to make for a long time. While there are many mods out there that add super forts or massive player homes to Skyrim, I have pretty much loved the Hearthfire locations. In particular the Lake View Manor house.

What it is about this area I do not know, but its my go to home every time. On top of this I like building my own home.

Now before we being you will see a lot of mods on here that are designed to enhance the Hearthfire experience at Lake View Manor. What you will NOT find are large, terrain altering "super mods". What I mean about a super mod is a mod that adds loads of stuff. I like to keep things simple, small so as better to have control over what I would like to get out of the game.

Also, I felt rather lonley out in the wilderness so I have included a "compliments" mod section which, amoung other things, includes two town mods which sit either side of the genral area that the house is built. It truly feels like you are a lord of the land!

As such the following list of mods are mods that I use to give me a greater control over the way my Lake View Manor looks and I hope that you will all enjoy it.

-MA-

Modlist:

Essentials

Any mod listed here is what I class as essential for anyone using the Hearthfire DLC.

Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition PatchA comprehensive bugfixing mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition (Which includes Hearthfire)

Interior

The mods in this section change the interior of the house or add to it.

Shezrie's Hearthfire Kitchens and Greenhouses

The kitchen mods place a kitchen in the small room behind the main hall in the Hearthfire houses. So now instead of using up the East Wing for a kitchen, you are free to use it as a Library or Armory and still have a working kitchen. The greenhouses put a greenhouse in the North Wing of Hearthfire's houses. So now you don't have to choose between a greenhouse and bedrooms.[NOTE: its is recommended that you do not build anything in the NORTH WING with this mod.]

Hearthfire Attics
Adds attics to the Hearthfire homes.

Interactive Wash Basins For Hearthfire
This mod makes the wash basins in Hearthfire homes usable. Using the wash basins gets you clean which increases your health regeneration by 10% for 4 hours

DLC Shrines for Hearthfire Homes
This mod adds 4 new buildable shrines in the cellar of all Hearthfire homes. You can now construct altars to Auriel, Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala using Hearthfire's build your own house system.

Coffin Cubby.
A secret room for your coffin.
I personally use the Coffin Cubby - Lair : Adds a much larger room complete with coffin, candle, dining table, blood extraction area, and of course your own personal cattle! file.

Lakeview Manor Staff Enchanter
This mod adds the ability to craft a staff enchanter to Lakeview Manor. It can be located on the second floor of the main hall.

Dragon Claw Stands.
A simple mod to provide display stands for your dragon claws.Not all houses can display every claw due to limited space. The Hearthfire houses split them up between the Main Hall and the basement

Exterior

The mods in this section change the exterior of the house or add to it.

Lakeview Manor Upgrades
A small simple mod that adds a wall that can be built, guards to patrol, some extra lighting. As well as the option to have the steward remove the Warlock Altar.

Lakeview Manor Fish Hatchery plus opt Mill
Adds a Fish Hatchery to Lakeview Manor in Falkreath. Same Hatchery as the one in Windstad Manor. [NOTE: I use only the Fish Hatchery as unfortunately the placement of the optional mill conflicts with other mods in this list.]

Hearthfire Balconies
I use ONLY the Arbor and Fountain setup. What you choose to use is up to you.

Larger Hearthfire Gardens.
Adds more planting spaces to existing Hearthfire gardens. [NOTE: See also "compliments" for More plants and recipes for Hearthfire mod that can be used with this one.]

Lakeview Manor Cellar Door
This is a simple mod that adds a trapdoor from the outside of Lakeview Manor leading straight to Lakeview Manor Cellar.

Lakeview Manor Road - Hearthfire
This mod adds a road from the lake just north of Hearthfire DLC's Lakeview Manor
[NOTE: Only use version 1.2. NOT 1.2b. IT will cause conflicts with other mods in this list]

Lakeview Manor Lights
Outdoor lighting for the Hearthfire Lakeview Manor home.

Lakeview Chairs
Adds two chairs. No really. Just two chairs.

People

This section covers new NPC's added or old NPC's changed.

Hearthfire Black smith (Material Merchants)
Adds a smithing materials merchant to the three homesteads for Hearthfire.

Dominions Hearthfire Stewards
Adds new NPCs who can become stewards for those that don't want to use the original companions.

In-House Materials Merchant for Hearthfire homesteads
your new home comes with a specialised Khajiit who deals exclusively in Hearthfire items.

Lakeview Manor Merchant - Haus Seeblick Haendler
Add a merchant in Lakeview Manor cellar.

General Merchant for Lakeview (in Pinewatch)
Antonius is a general merchant, who is also a fence, and he is in Pinewatch's exterior. You can find him sandboxing around the area.

Materials

This section contains mods that make it easier to get access to Hearthfire materials such as clay, stone, glass and what not.

Hearthfire - Buy Ingots From Stewards
Allows you to have Iron and Corundum ingots delivered to your chest in batches of 20 and 10 respectively, by talking to your steward

Hearthfire materials buy from Blacksmith
This mod adds the commen building materials to all Blacksmith merchants.The materials added: 100 Nails, 10 Locks, 20 Hinges and 20 Fittings.

Buy stone blocks and clay. Hearthfire.
Allows you to buy stone blocks and clay from merchants like Belethor.

Hearthfire is a part of skyrim
Adds 4 ovens into the game. Every tavern now has the new items like milk, butter, breadloafs, pies and wine

Misc

Mods that affect Lakeview manor but don't fit in any other category.

Daily Eggs
This mod makes only chicken nests respawn daily (every 24 hours).

Lakeview Manor Horse Relocation
sets your horse to spawn on the right side of the stable if you fast-travel to Lakeview Manor.

Simple Cow and Goat Milking
This mod adds the ability for you to walk up, activate a cow or goat, and watch a brief animation before you receive a jug of milk

Workable Churns
Allows you to use the Hearthfire churn at any time if you have a jug of milk to spare. No more waiting for respawns! Now, 1 jug of milk can be converted into 1 bowl of butter. Complete with immersive messages such as "You've made butter." and clanking sounds.

Compliments

These mods while not actual Lake View Manor mods compliment Lakeview manor.

More plants and recipes for Hearthfire including Dawnguard and Dragonborn plants
As the name suggests allows for the planting of more plants.

Return Home - Teleport Spells - With Optional Hearthfire Support
This mod will add a spell tome to each of the 5 houses you can purchase throughout Skyrim. Using this tome will teach you a spell called Return To "Home Name" that will teleport you back to that particular house.The Hearthfire version contains everything from the normal version but also books for the Hearthfire houses

Places: Oakwood -Hearthfire Edition-
Oakwood is a small hamlet in Falkreath hold on the road between Falkreath and Riverwood. It sits on beside the lake that Lakeview manor gets built on!

Town of Pinewatch (Near Lakeview Manor)
This mod adds a fully navmeshed village around Pinewatch with NPCs that have their own lives and schedules! Does not move Pinewatch.

Midgetalien

Hello internet!

I released another mod today: Winterhold Bridge Repaired.

If like me you got tired of the broken bridge at Winterhold then this is the mod for you. I have seen various mods over the years that have fixed this, most are bundled in larger overhaul mods some others just didn't do it to the scale that I wanted to do it.

While not perfect, it does the job that I want it to do.

Midgetalien

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update on my Skyrim Restored: Modlist. Added in some new stuff that I missed!

-MA-

Skyrim Restored

The Official Stuff:

Firstly you are going to want to get hold of Skyrim and it's DLCs. Pretty obvious stuff really. I have also included Lokir's Tomb.

Skyrim
Hearthfire
Dragonborn
Dawnguard
Lokir's Tomb (Bethesda edition)*
Hi-res Texture Replacer

*This was a small plugin made by BETHESDA for their Creation Kit tutorial. I see it as an official mod.

The Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USLEEP)

Followed by:

Unofficial Hi-res texture Patch

If you don't use USLEEP then the following patches can be used but they may cause conflicts with
mosds that require USLEEP (i.e Cutting Room Floor)

Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Cutting Room Floor:
This mod restores a lot of unused content. Several NPCs, quests, and other miscellaneous content which was created but never implemented in the game have been restored

Opening Cut Scene Overhaul.
This mod rejuvenates and overhauls 'Unbound' by restoring LOTS of cut, unused dialogue, including a more invigorating carriage scene, escaping the Keep with Ulfric and Elenwen confronting General Tullius

Trick shot perk:
Restores the archery perk "Trick Shot".

Haunting and Mourning:
Restores a couple of world interaction events that Bethesda left disabled.The Cutting Room Floor also restored aspects of "mourning". Its recommended that you put this mod above TCRF.

Boethiahs Bidding:
Restores the Boethiah's Bidding quest that was already partially implemented by Bethesda

Guard Dialogue Enhanced:
Besides giving the guards some much needed attention the mod restores some guard dialogue that was never used.

Civil War Overhaul:
Restores and enhances the civil war quest line and features such as losing battles, taking major towns, recruiting giants, reinforcements and better rewards.

Shor's Stone
Ivarstead
Darkwater Crossing
Kynesgrove
Whistling mine
Soljund's Sinkhole
Karthwasten

These mods not only expand the small villages but do it in a way that is the spirit of this mod list. The author has added houses for the residents who didn't have a home, restored some dialogue interactions for shor's stone and fixes some bugs such as investment in the black smith for Kynesgrove.

Hroldan
This mod restores the town of Hroldan as stated in lore. The mod also restores/adds villages around other inns. I only use the Hroldan file but if you wish there is the option to use the other villages too. Just double check for conflicts.

Lokir's House:
This mod adds a small farmhouse belonging to Lokir in Rorikstead. You know the chap from the start of the game who gets killed before the dragons attack.

Castle Volkihar restored:
A mod to allow the player to clean up the debris and rebuild Castle Volkihar to its former glory.

Oblivion gates in Skyrim
Oblivion gates in Cities
These mods add ruined Gates at several locations around the province, with the latter adding them to cities.

Falkreath Legendary Graveyard:
The lore states that the graveyard is large compared to the population of Falkreath. This mod fixes that oversight.

Bring out your dead
simple immersive mod which expands on the number of graves given to the unique NPCs that don't currently have them. Falkreath and Morthal both have graveyards already and have been expanded slightly to hold more. Dawnstar and Winterhold have Halls of the Dead just outside of town. Smaller villages have space set aside for new graveyards.

Lunar Forge Patch
This mod restores the Lunar forge to how it is described in the "Notes On The Lunar Forge" book.
Weapons forged at this forge while the moons are out will gain the absorb health enchantment.

Gildergreen Regrown
"For those who followed the path of renewal in Blessings of Nature, but missed out on seeing the full size live tree in all its glory, this mod is for you. Now you don't have to choose the path of violence and destruction if you don't want to. Your sapling will now grow over the course of 6 in-game months from a tiny bud into a full bloom tree you and the city can be proud of."

Craftable Circlets:
Adds the oversight of not being able to craft circlets to the game.

Lost art of the Blacksmith.
adds every missing weapon and armor improvement recipe to Skyrim. Useful crafting recipes for Silver weapons, royal armguards, lockpicks, work axes, and Imperial light armor are added as well.

Circlets and Hoods:
Another small oversight that is "fixed".

Understone Keep Restored
This is a simple cosmetic mod that removes all of the stone, dirt and rubble in the Jarl's home, cleaning it up into a wide open space. While not missing content/restoring content I consider it worth mentioning simply because who would live in such filth?

Altmeri Commentary on Talos
Adds two copies of Michael Kirkbride's "Altmeri Commentary on Talos" to the game, in possession of Elenwen and Ancano. M.Kirkbride worked on Morrowind and other TES titles focused around lore and concept. His work, while "fan fic" is considered Lore.

Conjure Dragon Priest:
Adds the conjure Dragon Priest spell to the game world. This spell is in the CK but is not used.

Pit Fighter:
Restores the ability to fight in Windhelms unused arena.

Lantair Dale
Oakwood
Amber Guard
Granitehall
These four mods restore locations seen in Skyrim in The Elder Scrolls Chapter I: Arena (set in 3E 399), into the modern day (4E 200) Skyrim setting over 200 years later.

Hearthfire is a Part of Skyrim:
Adds items from the Hearthfire DLC such as the new breads, wines and food to Taverns and random houses. It also placed 4 ovens into the game world.

Dragonborn DLC is a part of Skyrim:
(self-shaming plug for my mod) This mod attempts to integrate the Dragonborn DLC into Skyrim by taking some of the new content and making them available in Skyrim. NPC's will sell items, you can find items in random loot.

Frost Giants in the Cold
Adds Frost Giants from the DLC to the coldest parts of Skyrim.

EXTRAS:

This section includes mods which add items/places from other Elderscrolls games that are not necessarily part of Skyrim's in-game lore/cut/missing content.

Settlements Expanded.
This mod expands upon some of the lesser areas in Skyrim as well as adding 1 new area. The main reason this is included here is because it sits well with the other settlement mods listed, namely whistling mine and Soljund's Stinkhole.

Gehenoth
This mod adds the monster called Gehenoth from the mobile game "TES Travels: Dawnstar" to Skyrim.

Dwemer Spectres
Adds Dwemer Spectres from Morrowind to the Dwemer Ruins of Skyrim.

Solsthiem - The lost Levels.
Add-on for the Dragonborn DLC that adds 6 caves, 8 plants, 1 book and 4 quests. The content is based on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its expansion, Bloodmoon. The caves are dungeons that were featured in Bloodmoon, but aren’t present in Dragonborn. The new plants are mostly native to Morrowind, but some plants indigenous to Solstheim as it is portrayed in Bloodmoon are also included.

Elderscrolls Online Imports:
The Elder Scrolls Online Imports adds some Locations, Items, Spells, NPCs, and other things appearing in The Elder Scrolls Online into the world of Skyrim

Midgetalien

Hello everyone,

Its been a while, I apologize for not sticking around on here!

What I am bringing you today is a mod list that is designed to restore a lot of the cut content from Skyrim; and there is a lot of it. I am pretty much a lore "fanatic" when it comes to modding so I tend to not have mods in my game which add 100 new bits of armor or allow me to ride a giant into battle. Skyrim has a vast amount of unused content and to have it all restored over the years by various modders truly makes for a more complete game.

So what can you expect? Well new locations, weapons, armors, creatures, spells and quests! All restored back into the game.

I have also thrown in a few mods which, while not restoring cut content, add in/expand upon some of Skyrim's content based on in game information/mechanics: For example A mod that enhances the Falkreath Graveyard (In game its made out to be this awesome, large ancient graveyard that is unusual in its size and yet its just a small patch of land)

In terms of mechanics, I have included a mod that allows for the crafting of circlets (Seriously you could craft rings and amulets but not circlets?) and also a mod that allows you to wear both circlets and hoods.

You will also find here mods which attempt to tie the DLC's to Skyrim. By this I mean you can find items from the Dragonborn DLC in Skyrim instead of just on Solsthiem, or more ovens from hearthfire.

As a final, lore-restoration not cut content restoration, I have also linked to some new locations that appeared in previous TES Games, such as ARENA (towns like oakwood) but were left out of the Skyrim development. These mods are as complete as can be (i.e not just a slap up job but are tied into the radial quest system)

All of these mods are meant to be as Lore-friendly as one can get when using mods and take Skyrim to a new level.

If you think of any more mods feel free to comment and I will look to add them to the list :)
-MA-

Skyrim Restored

The Official Stuff:

Firstly you are going to want to get hold of Skyrim and it's DLCs. Pretty obvious stuff really. I have also included Lokir's Tomb.

Skyrim
Hearthfire
Dragonborn
Dawnguard
Lokir's Tomb (Bethesda edition)*
Hi-res Texture Replacer

*This was a small plugin made by BETHESDA for their Creation Kit tutorial. I see it as an official mod.

Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch
Unofficial Hi-res texture Patch

Cutting Room Floor:
This mod restores a lot of unused content. Several NPCs, quests, and other miscellaneous content which was created but never implemented in the game have been restored

Trick shot perk:
Restores the archery perk "Trick Shot".

Haunting and Mourning:
Restores a couple of world interaction events that Bethesda left disabled.The Cutting Room Floor also restored aspects of "mourning". Its recommended that you put this mod above TCRF.

Boethiahs Bidding:
Restores the Boethiah's Bidding quest that was already partially implemented by Bethesda

Guard Dialogue Enhanced:
Besides giving the guards some much needed attention the mod restores some guard dialogue that was never used.

Civil War Overhaul:
Restores and enhances the civil war quest line and features such as losing battles, taking major towns, recruiting giants, reinforcements and better rewards.

Shor's Stone
Ivarstead
Darkwater Crossing
Kynesgrove
These four mods not only expand the small villages but do it in a way that is the spirit of this mod list. The author has added houses for the residents who didn't have a home, restored some dialogue interactions for shor's stone and fixes some bugs such as investment in the black smith for Kynesgrove.

Lokir's House:
This mod adds a small farmhouse belonging to Lokir in Rorikstead. You know the chap from the start of the game who gets killed before the dragons attack.

Castle Volkihar restored:
A mod to allow the player to clean up the debris and rebuild Castle Volkihar to its former glory.

Oblivion gates in Skyrim
Oblivion gates in Cities
These mods add ruined Gates at several locations around the province, with the latter adding them to cities.

Falkreath Legendary Graveyard:
The lore states that the graveyard is large compared to the population of Falkreath. This mod fixes that oversight.

Craftable Circlets:
Adds the oversight of not being able to craft circlets to the game.

Circlets and Hoods:
Another small oversight that is "fixed".

Conjure Dragon Priest:
Adds the conjure Dragon Priest spell to the game world. This spell is in the CK but is not used.

Pit Fighter:
Restores the ability to fight in Windhelms unused arena.

Lantair Dale
Oakwood
Amber Guard
Granitehall
These four mods restore locations seen in Skyrim in The Elder Scrolls Chapter I: Arena (set in 3E 399), into the modern day (4E 200) Skyrim setting over 200 years later.

Hearthfire is a Part of Skyrim:
Adds items from the Hearthfire DLC such as the new breads, wines and food to Taverns and random houses. It also placed 4 ovens into the game world.

Dragonborn DLC is a part of Skyrim:
This mod attempts to integrate the Dragonborn DLC into Skyrim by taking some of the new content and making them available in Skyrim. NPC's will sell items, you can find items in random loot.

Elderscrolls Online Imports:
The Elder Scrolls Online Imports adds some Locations, Items, Spells, NPCs, and other things appearing in The Elder Scrolls Online into the world of Skyrim

Midgetalien

Hello everyone!

Having been away from the modding scene for a while I decided to tinker in Skyrims Creation Kit (dont worry Morrowind fans I am still modding Morrowind!). This is the end result of trying to make the Dragonborn DLC more immersive to Skyrim.

As with any expansion by Bethesda they always seem to make it the new content seem so isolated and distant. They did this for Bloodmoon with Morrowind and again with shivering isles for Oblivion. Its a trend
that has carried accross to the Dragonborn DLC and it really bothers me how distant it seems.

This mod attempts to integrate the Dragonborn DLC into Skyrim by taking some of the new content and making them available in Skyrim.

Npc's will sell items from the Dragonbron DLC. I have tried to keep it to a minimum so as not to wreck immersion and to at least save some surprises for visiting soslthiem.
The main features of this mod is to bring the staff crafting system to Skyrim, and many of the court wizards/college mages sell heartstones and unenchanted staffs as well asproviding the services to enchant them.
==================================
Here is a detailed list of what has been added to Skyrim:
==================================

Brand-She - the dark elf in Riften will now sell a handful of items from Morrowind. These include books, clothing and some ingredients.

Revyn Sadri in Windhelm has a chance to sell common and uncommon books from Morrowind/Solsthiem along with select parts of Chitin and bonemold armor (no complete sets) alongside
netch leather and Chitin plate to craft them with.

New Gnisis Corner club in windhelm has a chance to sell ash yams and Morrowind Bevrages.

Spell tomes for Bound dagger, poison rune and frenzy rune have been added to spell tome levelled lists and thus have a chance of appearing for sale by court wizards, college mages and turning up in loot.

Heartstones can be brought from court wizards and the College Mages of Winterhold.

Heartstones also have a chance of appearing in Warlock loot. This is an extremly low chance though.

Unenchanted staves can be brought from the College of Winterhold mages. Its done by class so for example an unenchanted Destruction staff can be brought from Faralda who is the destruction mage.

Unenchanted staves can also be brought from the court wizards. Each court wizard sells only one type. That is as follows:

- Wuunferth (Windhelm) Illusion
- Sybille (Solitude) Destruction
- Madena (dawnstar) Conjuration
- Wylandriah (Riften) Restoration
- Calcelmo (Markarth) Alteration
- Farenfar (whiterun) Destruction

Staff Enchanters can be found the rooms of all Court wizards mentioned above.

The beverage Flin has been added to the ruraldrinks levelled list used by innkeepers.

Boar tusks have been added to Apothecary Uncommon levelled list

Wild Boar have been added to the Forest and plains levelled list so you can encounter them in the wild.

The Fine clothes added by Dragonborn (fine clothes and fine boots) have been added to clothing levelled lists so will apear in loot and for sale.

Urag gro-shub (winterhold) will have a chance to sell Dragonborn books from the common and uncommon lists.

overall the mod adds Dragonborn loot to Skyrim.

Midgetalien

I may have been away from the net for a while but Morrowind is never far from my mind. In particular the vast amount of mods that I am working on. One in particular is taking new turns all the time. That is the Shrine of Falzan.

The shrine of Falzan, the 4th in the Falmer Project mod series that looks to put Falmer ruins on Solsthiem takes some inspiration from Skyrim. I've wanted to add actual falmer into the game for a while even considering ressurrecting the race but I thought no, I like the race to be gone. I like Skyrims approach - having the falmer decedents, a no longer proud and noble race but rather a goblin type creature.

With help from the guys at Great House Fliggerty I took it upon myself to learn blender and to recreate the Skyrim style Falmer. After messing around with some heads from a Playable Falmer race I created a head that suited my needs. Using blender, nifskope and Paint.net I cobbled together a new creature (to date all my creature mods are two or more existing creatures meshes together with new textures), and thus created what I can call a "New creature" (only about 89% vanilla meshes! my "most newest complete creature" to date)

So I give you, with comparison of the head mesh I edited in blender and the creature I hacked to bits:

Skyrim Style Falmer

Midgetalien

So continuing with the skyrim inspired theme I took a stab at making some wheat for a farm. With a modified "wickwheat" mesh from Morrowind and some new textures I came up with this:

Midgetalien

I've found a new texture for the hay - making it seem less "pillow like" and more spread out. Also added a second beam across the bottom to mirror the top.

As mentioned in a previous post there will be a version that comes without the hay!

Midgetalien

Continuing out Skyrim style theme, and chicken nests, I've made a skyrim style chicken hut:

Midgetalien

So finished the fence with a default texture!

Should have it uploaded soonish!

Midgetalien

So been working on some new resources today.

Inspired by Skyrims "Wicker wooden" fences for their farms, gardens and just marking boundaries I took a stab at it myself:

Midgetalien

All the interiors for Falzan are now finished! The only things left to do are the placement of creatures, some dialogue and some heavy scripting.

With the main bulk of the mod done, i.e the interiors, I have shifted focus to content. In tradition with the Neverhalls and the Forgottenhalls I wanted to add to the wealth of new items to collect. In part I have created some new armour. Two new Falmer parts (to match the armour from Snow Prince Enhanced, Neverhalls and Forgottenhalls)

As well as Falmer parts I've drawn inspiration from Skyrim - though I still refuse to have the Falmer as Goblinoid creatures! (though some Snow Goblins do show in the mod) - I have created Chaurus armour parts and weapons. So lots going on!

Midgetalien

Still going through old files on my External Hardrive and found this lost little bit of armor. A bit from the readme:

"The Armor was based on some concept art for the Home of the Nords. I made it a year or so ago and meant to give it to the SHoTN team but it was lost in a HD crash. I recently found a back up on my external hard drive."

So rather than hit the delete button I thought to share this lost file with you all.

It is a modders resource which means that you can use it in your mods if you want :D Cause I am nice like that.

You can download it here: Click Me

Midgetalien

Skyrim

With Skyrim just months away Todd Howard has released some quality HD footage of the world of Skyrim. The footage, which is about 20 minutes long, sees Todd take use through the wilderness, into mountains and ruins fighting wolves, bandits, trolls, giants, undead warriors and of course Dragons!

Dragons!

While most of this footage has already been shown or talked about before but this is the first time that that Skyrim game play footage has been shown in HD, without the rambles of journalists and fans over the top of it meaning that we can fully appreciate the soundtrack created by Jeremy Soule.

To those who haven’t seen the videos I have embedded them here at the bottom of this blog along with HD screenshots provided by dAb at the official forums.

A detailed world:

We’ve known from day one that the world of Skyrim would be a wondrous place to explore filled with detail beyond belief. The dedication that Bethesda went to in order to give us Oblivion meant that at the announcement of Skyrim we knew that this detail would be taken to the next level.

Forest in Oblivion

It came as no surprise then that as the first screens of Skyrim came filtering down the amount of attention to detail was mind blowing. The hours alone spent creating the models, textures and bumpmaps for each individual item, creature and NPC must have been enduring, let alone placing it all in game!

Its all about the detail

The latest HD videos show that the world of Skyrim truly is detailed and diverse as we had hoped , and if that isn’t enough to get excited about then the best thing to note is that while Oblivion was considered a master piece, Skyrim will take the throne. Gone is the annoying bloom of the Oblivion environment which made everything shine with a strange blurry brightness. Instead what we get is a masterpiece as artists from all over unite to give us a game worthy of the current generation of console and technology.

Oblivion - Bloom,shiny and blurred grass!

Detailed, crisp and sharpe

Blending it altogether is what makes it seem even more realistic and Bethesda seems to have managed this. Promising a more diverse landscape than Oblivion did, Bethesda hail back to Morrowind which had environments spanning from swamps and Grazelands to the dusty Ashlands and the fiery Red Mountain.

Morrowind Ashlands

This diversity is seen once more in Skyrim and with a stronger blending method. In Morrowind on side of a hill was Grazeland the other was Ashland. In Skyrim it’s not so clear cut; a mountain patch that is rich with life slowly becomes tundra and then suddenly a frozen void – a more realistic environment it would seem

Mountain Path that leads....

....into tundra....

....and eventually frozen waste

The itch to explore

With its impressive game world its only acceptable if Bethesda put as much effort into the diversity and detail into the 150 dungeons they have palced around the world; for the aim of the game is to explore and if the locations are dull then the exploration is boring and Skyrim would become just another bog standard RPG doomed to follow the likes of Two Worlds one nad two. However this is not the case!

Nord Ruins

Skyrims diverse environments, detailed landscapes and smoth transitions are applied to the dungeons as well. In one dungeon alone we go from an old Nord Temple ruin to a cave system back into a small mountain path that leads into a tomb and ends with a grand chamber – each one offering a small glimpse into the world that Skyrim has to offer.

Nord Ruins

Little touches such as spider webs that coat the floor and passive bats which flutter in panic as you enter their space all help to create an atmosphere of epic proportions that leaves you wanting more, edging and encouraging you to go on for better or for worse. All of this just from a video! Imagine what it will be like to sit there with the controls in your hand, drinks and snacks to the side as you prepare to dive into an unknown cave wondering what secrets it holds? The last time I felt like that was with Morrowind. Alas I didn’t get that feeling with Oblivion as for the dungeons became predictable – with Morrowind while they were stagnated you still had a more diverse range of tombs and caves to explore.

To the bat cave!

All of this detail, all of this diversity and only months to go before we can get our hands on it! But before I go (don’t forget the videos and screenshots are at the end of this article) I just want to point out some of the creatures shown in the demo footage and so that you can see how that diversity and detail transfers over to the living and undead creatures that roam Skyrim: