ACCEPTED Gemling Queen Jewelry (by Saerileth)

[TechAngel85]

At this point with amulets released, there is no reason to NOT accept this mod into STEP.

 

Marked as Accepted for 2.2.9

 

This will completely replace Jewels of the Nord, if I'm not mistaken.

[DoubleYou]

This still does not entirely replace Jewels of the Nord, which is still providing those same four textures, and it sounds like the MA likes those four textures ;)

[TechAngel85]

Other ring texture replacers will not take effect as I pointed my meshes at a custom texture path, so if you have AEterna Rings installed those textures will NOT be used. I have included the SMIM textures in my archive, I may add a vanilla texture option if there is enough interest.

 

 

Doesn't this mean the Textures from Jewels of the Nord will not be used? Need clarification.

[DoubleYou]

Amulet teaser:

 

Improved the vanilla geometry by quite a bit, now the amulets are actually round. Also flattened the pendant out a bit, doesn't look half bad now, especially with the Jewels of the Nord textures. Poly-count is around 850, I think I'll leave it at that... I could smooth out the chain a bit, but I don't think it's really necessary.

Maybe the rings, but not the amulets.

[TechAngel85]

The amulets aren't uploaded yet (from what I can tell). So unless Saerileth comments, we'll have to wait til they are uploaded to see if a custom path is used for them as well. I assume the same path will be taken with the amulets as were for the rings.

[Saerileth]

Whoa, amulets are not released yet! That was just a teaser, It'll take some time yet to copy the new shape over to the other amulets, and I haven't even started on the equipped mesh yet. Fitting and rigging will be a pain.

 

The amulets will be compatible with other texture replacers (e.g. Jewels of the Nord or AEterna Necklaces), same as my circlets will work with Better Circlets or AEterna. The problem with the rings is that SMIM uses a new, custom texture path (for reasons unknown), and I like those textures so I want to use them. This is why I included them in my archive. On the other hand it really irks me that I'm essentially forcing this choice on my users (and it's very inconsistent with my other modules). I could change the texture path back to vanilla, but then to use SMIM textures you'd have to manually move them to the correct location.

 

Unless... I've got permission from Brumbek to include his textures, I could just write a FOMOD installer with a corresponding option. Then you would still be able to use Jewels of the Nord or AEterna rings.

 

I don't think you can cut Jewels of the Nord just yet, it still retextures the amulets. I'd wager Brumbek will eventually release an improved version of those textures with SMIM though, the same as he did with the rings.

[kryptopyr]

Does it even work to simply rename/replace the texture paths?  SMIM changed the appearance of the texture file itself (the way the texture is arranged within the image), so I'm not sure it would be simple to swap out with with any textures using the vanilla layout.

[TechAngel85]

Okay, then it's still marked at accepted.

 

I propose Jewels of the Nord be moved back down to Clothing & Equipment and we instruct users to hide the meshes folder in MO. If I'm not mistaken this will achieve the same thing as moving it above SMIM did. We should keep the Conflicting section as light as possible. Since then Jewels of the Nord will only be providing texture overwrites. Putting this mod and Jewels of the Nord in alphabetical order shouldn't be an issue.

 

Does this sound right?

[DoubleYou]

Should work, albeit that adds an extra step ;)

[Saerileth]

kryptopyr, you're totally right, didn't even notice they were different - this explains why SMIM uses a custom texture path. I'd have to completely redo the UV and keep an alternative version of all ring meshes up to date. Not gonna happen, so my ring module will never use AEterna or Jewels of the Nord textures.

[Saerileth]

Need some feedback on the jeweled necklaces, folks:

 

You'll notice I changed the layout of the gems to be slightly angled, no longer in one straight line. I feel it makes the jeweled amulets look more interesting than vanilla. Trouble is, I can't decide which side I wan't up. What do you think?

[TechAngel85]

Option 2.

[kryptopyr]

Instead of keeping with the 1 large, 2 small design for this style, what do you think of creating an entire circle of smaller gemstones (at least 6, but smaller than the current ones) around the outside of the central stone?  That seems like a fairly common type of setting design for precious stones (in modern day, at least) and would make it even more distinctive from the single-stone necklaces.

[Saerileth]

But then wouldn't we have to adjust the smithing recipes to require more gemstones? Or would the Dragonborn sort of grind down one large gem into several smaller ones? Either way, I've kinda grown attached to this design... put a lot of work into it, and while flipping it is a matter of two clicks, changing the arrangement of stones can be rather time-consuming. But I really like your idea. Tell ye what, I'll stay with this for Gemling Queen Jewelry and make you a 6-ring version for CCOR later (by the way, haven't forgotten about all the other meshes I've promised you, I'll get on with that once my amulet replacer is done).

 

I think I'll use Option 2 for the gold amethyst necklace and Option 1 for silver ruby/garnet. Adds a bit of variety, which can't hurt.

[phazer11]

I like the amulets. Though the chain looks like you were going for a interconnected link chain and not a more of a rope like one if that's the case I think the chain looks too flat.