** Requirements: Nwn 1.67 and all it's expansions (SoU, HoTU, and CEP 1.53) **
Upon the tall crags that loom ever high above the great jungles of the Far East the Sacred Garden of Nelebrinel sits... where mystics oft go to contemplate the meaning of life and meditate in search of enlightenment. The Holy Monks of Old Nelebrinel are said to be among the wisest in the world, and at the Great Shrine in the center of the Garden those especially worthy have been known to ascend to Heaven. For most, this is a place of peace and serenity... but for those seeking more, it can also be a place of great natural power blessed by the gods and made sacred by the pure devotion of their mortal worshippers.
Contains an .erf for easy importing and a demo module to visit the garden.
Posted by slink at 2007-05-13 10:54:09 Voted 10.00 on 05/13/07
This should serve as an inspiration to anyone attempting to use the Ruins tileset for an exterior, a purpose for which it seems all too seldom to be used.
Posted by Darkvalley at 2007-02-21 17:03:55 Voted 10.00 on 02/21/07
GREAT!
Posted by Black Feather at 2006-10-06 04:39:15 Voted 10.00 on 10/06/06
NOW THIS....this is a real elven garden.
I bookmarked your page with your full list of work. Your prefabs are just beautiful!!!
Kaotiqua, thanks for the post and, of course, the vote! That's some very high praise indeed. As to how I put together such great areas without using any big haks? Basically, I have a rule that I follow with almost all of my prefabs: use nothing other than CEP and if you must use a hak other than that, use a small one. And while that might limit some folks, it encourages me to be more creative with what I have to work with,
as well as the fact it is being fair to those who will eventually download it. Creativity is the main driving force of all my work... some things come from my imagination, or from dreams I've had... whilst others, come from artwork I have seen over the years, movies that I have watched, descriptions of interesting or unusual places that I've read about in fact as well as in fiction... and many other sources besides. I draw all of my inspiration from just about everything! But, of course, just my creativity and inspiration by themselves would not be enough to achieve the feats I have in these prefabs. Also necessary are two important factors: the first, is that I have practiced and experimented with the Nwn Toolset extensively, getting used to the way everything works and how it is all laid out, until now I am fairly comfortable with the system and all it can do... as well as keeping in mind what it cannot do. Knowing where my limitations lie, I can work around them or rise above them to achieve many feats that would be impossible has I not been aware of them. So, practice and knowledge are very important, but the second thing I meant to mention is no less important: a builder must see things more from the player's visual perspective than from a builder's. An area can look a lot different in-game than in the Toolset, so I try to test in-game as I go. (Thanks to Bioware for that wonderful Test Module option the new patches have added! It was needed.) All of the above factors form the sum of what makes any good prefab... or any work of art at all... possible. Cheers!
Posted by Kaotiqua at 2006-09-05 12:05:22 Voted 10.00 on 09/05/06
I am completely baffled. As a non-coder, (recently starting to think about it though,) I'm amazed that anyne puts ANYTHING together, even using massive haks and the CEP/PRC/CRAP/CODI contents.
But this. These prefabs are beyond amazing. And small. Virtually hakless. I've had more fun and been more amazed wandering around these "blank slates" for the past twelve hours or so than I've had in a module in a long time.
So, HOW do you pack such amazing original and beautiful design into such a small package, without using haks? And HUGE ones, to boot!
*Worships at a new shrine to Chaos_Theocrat*
YOU are THE MAN! _________________________ "There's no religion but time & motion-
No religion, just tribal scars."
Posted by Lady_Silveroak at 2006-08-09 15:11:29 Voted 10.00 on 08/09/06
Once again a very Nice Job! I love it...Please keep them comming...Your Ideas lend to further Ideas! Thank you!
Posted by TheLaughingOne at 2006-07-28 20:14:07 Voted 9.75 on 07/28/06
Wow!
I'm glad I had the privelage of reading the detailed post on the "wheel" before voting... it (more than) likely influenced my submission ;)
I've commented more than once on how I enjoy your descriptions(stories) behind your works, but this one is REALLY interesting. I was quite curious as to your inspiration of this one and, as always, was delighted by your stunning style (of prefab). I'm glad you shared the 'Juggernaut' and 'Melnibonian' influences. I feel that this adds GREAT substance to your work :D
K... think I've rambled on enough here.
Great work again, Chaos, and much appreciation for sharing! Keep 'em coming!
Cheers!!! _________________________ "From down here we can make the whole wall collapse."
"Uh... yeah, boss. But how do WE get out?"
- Goblin Digging Team
Posted by coreyh2 at 2006-07-27 21:15:36 Voted 9.00 on 07/26/06
Thanks for the description of your thought process. I'll find some pictures of that architecture so I can recognize it.
My thoughts on the Gallery Shed wheels and the reasons I did not try to hide them are as follows, and do make sense:
Firstly, have you ever seen an ancient Norse Longhouse? On many old buildings, such as Norse Longhouses, they often mounted round shields on the walls as decorations (on the outside). Since the wheels on the Gallery Shed placeables look like round shields of this type, I saw no reason to waste placeables just to cover them with actual shields only to attain the same effect that the shed produces naturally when the Gallery is mounted. Now as to my second reason and the one that made the most sense to me: In Ancient India, there was this wooden temple that was sacred to the old god Jamagandath, known here in the West as Juggernaut, and on the walls of that temple the monks and priests mounted wheels which were seen as the symbol of the god. A large wheel was venerated in the center of his temple and devotees once allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the wheel as a kind of personal sacrifice to the god. So it was common to see wheels used as decorations in a temple to such a deitiy in that era of history. Now for the third good reason:
In Michael Moorcock's Elric novels, the Lords of Chaos had as their symbol an eight-spoked wheel. Because of this, it was not uncommon for priests of Chaos to mount wheels on walls, and venerate them as symbols of their gods. In fact, in the novel "Sailor on the Seas of Fate" an actual wheel sacrfifice like unto those conducted in Ancient India was depicted when Earl Saxif D'aan put his former lover to death on a wheel. The importance of the wheel was not detailed as often in the novels as it was in the comic books and PnP games based in the Elric world... but it was there, and it made sense in the context of that world. Since I saw this garden as being set either in Ancient India or the Elric world (also known to fans as the Young Kingdoms), it renders the use of wheels into something grand instead of "goofy". Now I am not mad at your use of this term so don't get me wrong, in fact I can understand well that you (most people in fact) most likely knew absolutely nothing of any of these more esoteric historical/mythological facts, since they are very obscure; but these facts speak for themselves once one has been made aware of them. So what might seem to be illogical at first glance, makes perfect sense the more learned one becomes in the ancient lore that inspired such architecture as this to begin with. I thank you again for your vote, and perhaps now that you know the logic behind those wheels you will find more of an appreciation for this area then you might have had when previously you mis-understood what was intended by them in the way of meaning. I wish you luck with your projects, and thank you again for your vote. Farewell for now, I've a great deal of work to attend to!
Posted by coreyh2 at 2006-07-26 22:55:15 Voted 9.00 on 07/26/06
I understood what you were doing with them. I just spent some time going through the CEP placeables to understand how you were making your previous areas. The sheds look goofy to me from some angles. Damn wheels. Its not a effect I'm going to copy.
I was suprised when I figured out it was the crypt tileset.
vegetation is the effect I'm most impressed by. Osnimloth is still my favorite.
At some point I'm going to make my own version of that sort of city with CEP plus DOA.
I haven't looked at the elven tilesets yet. Probably should.
Posted by Sharona Curves at 2006-07-26 19:01:43 Voted 10.00 on 07/26/06
i actually thought the gallery sheds were a part of the towers used in the center. they seem to be an extension upon the space of the tower(an extended upper floor) and blend good in the surrounding. very original.
Sharona, I'm glad you liked the way I used the towers in this one. Whenever I place them in an area, I try to come up with a unique way to do so that will make them not seem so out of place but rather so that they actually appear to be part of the tileset. In this case, the way to do that was by using the trees to give the towers an overgrown look, in keeping with the run-down style of the crypt tileest (yes, that is the crypt tileset under all that).
Also, I'm pleased to see you enjoyed my use of the vegetation to create a more living environment out of the otherwise dead atmosphere of the crypts. It was no easy feat to achieve, but it looks incredible in-game I must admit. Thank tou for the high vote of 10.00, too!
Coreyh2, the main idea behind the use of the Gallery Sheds was to create a wooden peak-roof like on some oriental buildings to place atop the columns as an extension of the towers; this made a convincing temple-style structure fit for monks to live in. Of course, they will appear odd at times being up like that, but it was really the only way to achieve the look using just placeables and no haks but CEP. (I have two prime reasons why I keep to just CEP with the majority of my prefabs: Firstly - so I can show the community what is possible for a builder to achieve without using any other haks but CEP, and second - so that my prefabs will appeal to the most wide range of people some of whom might have just the CEP to work with.) I am glad to see you liked the area, and I thank you for the vote of 9.00 as well!
Posted by Sharona Curves at 2006-07-26 16:12:07 Voted 10.00 on 07/26/06
very nice. a living carved grotto. well designed. the use of CEP towers in this area is amazing as is the foliage.
Posted by coreyh2 at 2006-07-26 13:25:01 Voted 9.00 on 07/26/06
Amazing. If it wasn't on a flat tileset it would be my favorite of yours. Gallery Sheds look odd from a some angles.
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