SKYRIMLE New Forest Atronach - by Ren by Rengel

[EssArrBee]

What is logical sense? A walking forest creature that can turn invisible and use magic?

 

Use ren's in game and you won't notice the patterns that much but they look the best over all.

[TechAngel85]

Logical sense in the realm of Skyrim... use some imagination here. Why would a creature of the wood and forest have gold inlaid on itself. Just one good answer that makes sense from anyone will suffice. If there isn't one then it's still BoS. I could completely understand a Stone creature to have gold inlaid because it would be a creature of the earth. That gold on this woodland creature is just screaming at me that is make no sense because it's suppose to be "of nature".

 

Truth be told, I prefer not to add elements to the game unless they make 100% sense. Core doesn't allow this but Extended does as long as it makes sense and fits into the game as something that can be deemed as "missing" from the vanilla game that should have be designed in.

[EssArrBee]

Logical sense in the realm of Skyrim... use some imagination here. Why would a creature of the wood and forest have gold inlaid on itself. Just one good answer that makes sense from anyone will suffice. If there isn't one then it's still BoS. I could completely understand a Stone creature to have gold inlaid because it would be a creature of the earth. That gold on this woodland creature is just screaming at me that is make no sense because it's suppose to be "of nature".

 

Truth be told, I prefer not to add elements to the game unless they make 100% sense. Core doesn't allow this but Extended does as long as it makes sense and fits into the game as something that can be deemed as "missing" from the vanilla game that should have be designed in.

I am using imagination and that is why I can imagine some magical, tree lady having some special designs. It's called magic bro. If I can ride a dragon, then murder it, and steal it's soul, then some wood can have some patterns on them. Look at the back of their legs, there is a swirled wood pattern on the lower part of the leg. Plus, you only see the pattern up close when you turn combat AI off, otherwise it just becomes part of the whole scene and looks quite nice.

[TechAngel85]

Considering this is a summoned creature the gold can be passed off I suppose. I haven't read any objections for this being added to Extended ( Core mandate will be allow it). It's just a matter of choosing the best texture.

[torminater]

Why does it have to be gold, and not a bright tree sap?

[EssArrBee]

It is not a summoned creature. That is part of the mod but we would use the replacer file for both the spriggan and spriggan matron.

[TechAngel85]

 

I'll do some in-game testing in a bit but I still think that BoS textures are going to come out on top for me.

[TechAngel85]

Now that I have tested in-game. I can officially say this should remain with Book of Silence (current STEP). Ren's retextures are stylistic in nature. Adding patterns to the creature as well as changing the color of some textures from green to gold/yellow. This does not hold up to the Mandate which states:

STEP:Extended is about ...

• ... content that is consistent with Skyrim and TES lore as established by Bethesda's creators and extrapolated on by the STEP community in accordance with the Imperial Library and the UESP.
• ... continuity and qualitative consistency of all in-game behaviors and assets (e.g., sounds, graphics, models, gameplay, etc.)
• ... new content, assets and effects that "fit" Skyrim and TES lore.

STEP:Extended is a complete Expansion Pack, meaning that it is intended to complete the entire STEP modded build. In addition to adding upon the visual and acoustic enhancements of vanilla Skyrim, STEP:Extended modifies aspects of the vanilla game in terms of gameplay mechanics and may include mods that add or subtract specific functionality to yield an overall more immersive experience. It is essentially an overhaul of the vanilla game.

STEP:Extended is NOT about ...

• ... Sex mods, body replacement mods or beauty mods that unrealistically affect or digress from the ambiance of the TES series.
• ... Music replacement mods or game style overhauls.
• ... Gameplay overhauls that affect a particular play style (i.e., gameplay alterations are chosen that affect all play styles without bias).

It's my understanding that this applies to both single retextures as well as massive texture overhauls which change the style from the vanilla game. Some style changes are considered okay such as changing the wood from one texture to another as long as it doesn't include "decorative" art and changes in color (greyish to reddish). Since this mod does include these stylistic changes of the textures in the ways described here and above, it should not be considered, IMO, unless it is a consensus with the STEP Staff as Extended is "our" STEP Pack.

 

With that said, the retexture itself is quite good and I see nothing wrong with it as it stands. I don't agree with the change from green to yellow but I'm a bit of a purist and that is a stylistic choice. I also don't agree that the new patterns aren't noticeable, as stated, because they light up during combat bringing your attention to them. This mod is good and a well done retexture but perhaps not for STEP.

 

That is my personal assessment of this mod in regards to its STEP inclusion.

[z929669]

I like BoS best too, but Ren's is also good. I like that Ren's seems to be a bit less busy with the leaves, but that could be the screenshot bias.

 

What I want to know is why/how is it we are not using BoS currently in STEP? We are installing BoS creatures ....

[TechAngel85]

I don't know how that statement came about but we are. We install the entire creatures pack for BoS. As for the leaves, they're just as busy on Ren's...and gold/yellow...

[TechAngel85]

Need sufficient debate that these are better than BoS and not just a stylistic change or it will be taken out of testing. Please reply from experience using it in-game. All I've seen from using it in-game are that the changes are simply stylistic and not any better or worse than BoS. There is nothing wrong with this, but STEP is not about making stylistic changes to the game.

[Noobsayer]

While I strongly prefer Ren's because of the stylistic choices (I also have a house mod that makes looking at these guys very easy) I don't think I can say they are necessarily better from a technical standpoint.

[TechAngel85]

Dropped from Testing. No inclusion. Book of Silence will continued to be used.