Progress is only a concept...

I said something yesterday that I have never said before in all my days. "We can have the barbecue tomorrow".

Now that might seem a little ordinary but in England that is something you can't say. In fact you are lucky if you can say "We can have the barbecue in an hour".

When the sun comes out here the supermarkets instantly empty of charcoal bricks, lighter fuel, sausages and burgers. No barbie can be planned. They must all be on impulse.

Look at this!

And we've already had weeks of the same.

This is of course all building up to my reason/ excuse for not progressing at any great speed on the Caldera Experiment. Who the hell wants to sit in front of this shit on days like that?

It's my wedding anniversary tomorrow and casting my mind back it pissed down, was cold and windy. I know this because I was in a kilt! Why wasn't it like this?

After all that I did manage to make a few new models and throw them in the CS at Caldera at 2 a.m. because no one can sleep because of the damn heat.

Caldera in the rain.... oh I miss you wet stuff.

Also made a wattle fence for some unknown reason but it seems to fit the atmosphere. Needs a re-texture but just haven't got around to that;

(Forgive the shitty CS snap shot)

I also made a start on the entrance way. I think it needs some sort of gate/ port coulis but not quite sure yet?

I'm just about to make the sign for "Caldera Concoctions" but can't decide on it. I think I will end up with the old pestle and mortar though. Bog standard for alchemists right?

Lucevar supplied me with some clutter ideas early this morning which I think I might have time to throw some of them together later today (with a bit of luck).

I did take quite a large amount of time cleaning up my model scene though so at least I am a little more organised now than I was. 62 models in one scene and half them not used.... they had to go.

I will no longer be using the governors manor that I made so that may make an appearance on Nexus for anyone that can find a use for it. Player home maybe? Who knows.

I now have this massive, massive urge to go to my garden and do a bit of cleaning there to (when the sun comes around to it that is). First I shall hit Maya and make this sign.

Well...... after a little while I decided on the pestle and mortar. Here are all my blacksmiths fine wrought iron work for his patrons in Caldera;

At least something is happening right? Here's to a 2090 release!!

Well I did upload it so here it is

Sex deprivation!

Not only are my Morrowind modding hours being eaten away by work, weddings and the World cup but the sex life is on the brink to.

I managed to get the original Age of Kings working on my Windows 10 (and hers) and now that time of night where we would curl up in front of Netflix and get friendly has been eaten up by LAN games!

I had forgotten how much fun that game really was and to be honest, right now, with work and everything else, the last thing I really want to do is sit down to some serious modding.

On the other hand I did open Wings today and did some more UV tweaking with the France V Denmark match on in the background.

Weekend saw my birthday, a sixteen hour work session and a wedding, a wedding we almost missed because England were winning 5-0 at half time! Seriously. Who books their wedding in the middle of the England match?

All good. We got there in the end. It was like a Welsh uprising. Everyone was Welsh (apart from the wife of course who is indeed a Mexican bandit).

On the modding front the good news for me is that I've been asked to join the team with Merlord and Danae for the next MMM. Last time I suffered by myself and it wasn't so much fun by the 3rd challenge I can tell you.

I will also be doing an interview with DarkElfGuy this weekend (he almost had us doing it while England played their next match!) and I have no idea how that will go down...

All this and the ridiculous heat we are suffering with is way too much for we Celts. 31C today here in England which is pretty bloody unusual. The past 10 years or so has seen an average summer temp of 17C so I'm sure you can imagine how we all feel.


Germany and Brasil both play tomorrow and could both be out of the cup! That would be an awesome result as I'm not particularly fond of either of them (especially Brasil).

The chances of me touching the Construction Set are few and far between but after the group matches are over at weekend then there will be more time between the matches and I will more than likely do a bit of something on Caldera if nothing else.

Right. Almost 1 am and up with the birds later so I'm off for a cold shower and a bit of shut eye.

Good night all!

More modding!

Morrowind Summer Challenge is here. From the one and only DarkElfGuy.

Follow this link for more details.

All videos this time.

Modathon Winners 2018





And a nice little interview with Merlord of Frostwind fame.

A day off.

Today I got a full day off and started it by opening Wings and modelling a forge. Then another one and another...

Six incarnations later I made one I was fairly happy with but still not 100%. I did manage to make a few other missing bits and pieces and with a bit of luck I'm close to finishing up with all the models I need for the exteriors...maybe?

Anyway. Here's what I did today;

I have a minor operation in the morning but when I get home I hope to make a start on the bellows for the forge and maybe make some of those fences I so dearly want.

The biggie that's left is of course the town gates and the curtain wall but I'm quietly confident they will be easy.

I'm still considering "Fort Ebony" but that remains in the deepest depths of my mind and of course if I did make it I would want an entire quest line to go with it. Maybe my son will lend a hand with the story board script? You never know.

There was a story line I was going to make that involved a kind of police force faction rather than guards. The idea behind the quests was a full on mystery/ investigation type deal. No idea where I'm going with this!

Anyway. We shall see what happens. There are always future updates I suppose.

If anyone has any ideas then please PM me on my Discord and I will be happy to discuss the possibility of making them real.

Off to bed now. Don't want to be too tired in the morrow(ind).

Good night.

Onward and upward!

Good morning people (and other animals that have the internet). The weather here is taking a downward spiral and reverting to the usual British summer state of rain, cold and wind. Not good for my real work but pretty good for my modding time. According to the met office we're getting a three or four day break from the sunshine so I will be taking this time to hit the CS and do a bit of modelling.

 I actually had chance yesterday to do stuff on the Caldera Experiment. Not a lot, but still something.

(Click picture to enlarge)

I'm quite happy now with the wattle and daub textures and feel I can go forward with the end design for Caldera itself. Still have several models that need to be made (in my opinion), more steps, rails and shop fronts with real windows you can actually see through.

The main city gates are still an issue. Made several so far but none that I actually like. So many other things to get right that I'm not actually worried in the slightest about those as yet.

BadLuckBurt is in the middle of writing an app for something else (not really asked lol) but I'm sure he will be on the case soon to throw in a little input to Caldera.

The Elder Scrolls VI has sort of been announced by Bethesda with a very sketchy promo video that gives nothing away apart from the scenery looks to be pretty damn cool.

Take a look at this in case you missed it;

Yup. Like I said. They give fuck all away.

Well. Don't get too excited because I personally can't see it happening for a few year yet. Bethesda are currently working on Starfield and, my research tells me that ES6 wont even get a look in until that has been released.

Where will it be? High rock seems to be the favourite with Hammerfell coming a close second.

I really want to see this in High rock of course. Tudor style buildings and the Bretons, basically it's just medieval England. Caldera is my favourite town in Morrowind and an entire world of it would really get me moist (did I just say that?).

The architecture of Morrowind is something I have always looked at in great depth and as I was brought up in a place that looks like Caldera concept art I can really associate myself with it and to me it has a sort of "real feel" about it.

The forts in Morrowind are very disappointing for me though. The stone used to build them can't be found anywhere and the style is so out of place.

How can I say this? Simple. The UK still has between 6 and 700 castles still standing and seen a whole lot of them. Growing up I played in the ruins of Clitheroe Castle and for those of you old enough Swap Shop was there once!

Each castle around the country is built with local stone and each castle has local aspects to it. It wasn't a gang of Irish builders constructing the exact same castle up and down the country, it was local builders and craftsmen adding their own uniqueness to each one. This is something greatly missing from Morrowind.

I personally believe that Norman style castles would fit in more with the Morrowind environment than the existing drab, uniform ones we see in game.

Neglect

Good morning all! Sorry for neglecting this blog and of course neglecting Morrowind in general. It's just that time of year where everything goes tits up for me and the sun comes out! Spending my time modding real houses rather than the ones in Caldera.

It's not actually been this dry and sunny in England in one period for a very long time. In fact 1976 springs to mind. (Yep. That long).

Sat here at 8:30 a.m. and it's 22C... The average summer temperature in the UK is around 15C. Make hay while the sun shines.

Enough of the wonderful British weather.

I came home the other night and as usual jumped in the bath to rest my old weary bones while listening to some documentary on youtube. I simply type "History" in the search and scroll through them to find one I haven't already seen. Funny enough the first one that came up was this;




It seems to be the month for video's in general. While typing away here I'm listening to the interview with NullCascade. Very interesting stuff. Not enough programmers in our community if you ask me.

Be warned. It's an hour and a half long interview so not for the faint hearted. Well worth a background listen though.




Right. Off to find a roof to sit on and eat my lunch. Hopefully I wont neglect this or Morrowind as long again (although I do hope the weather stays awesome :D)

Later!