UESPWiki:Oblivion Places Redesign Project

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The Oblivion Places Redesign Project is an effort to update the contents and maps for all Places in Oblivion and provide more complete and more consistent information in all the articles.

Contents

[edit] Motivation

The pages describing individual forts, ruins, caves, and mines are currently less than complete. The plan is to expand each of those pages to provide a more detailed walkthrough of the ruin/cave, including a complete and consistent list of useful items that can be found there. UESPWiki:Oblivion Places Redesign Project/Example has been set up as an example of the new proposed format.

Some specific ideas on how the place pages need to be improved include:

Better information about important treasure:

  • "Important treasure" includes unique items, quest-related items (shadowbanish wine, ayleid statues), boss-level chests, high-value items (e.g., Varla Stones), guaranteed enchanted items, and guaranteed skill books. (Should it also include nirnroot?)
  • These items should be listed in the summary box for the place
  • They should be shown and individually labelled on maps
  • Walkthroughs should provide specific details about how to get these items
Add useful information to maps
  • Show entry/exit doors on maps
  • Orient maps with north up
  • Locations of all important treasure with labels
  • Locations of monsters and minor treasure
  • Locations of obstacles, traps, and other factors that need to be described in the walkthrough
  • Possibly some sort of side view of the map for multi-level areas?
Details on minor treasure
  • A lot of the existing place pages include comments like "low quality loot" which are probably just based upon one person having bad luck when going through the dungeon.
  • Providing specifics on the number of loot chests in a given dungeon is more useful than a generic statement like "low quality loot"
  • Any general statements need to be supported by facts on the number of the loot chests (i.e., only if a dungeon contains no boss chests and only one or two loot chests should there be a statement about low quality loot)
Walkthroughs
  • Instructions on how to get through the dungeon

[edit] Specific Tasks

There are several tasks that need to be done to upgrade each page. If you would like to help, you could try tackling one article and completely upgrading it, doing all of the necessary tasks. Or if one type of task appeals to you more (e.g., adding walkthroughs), you could choose to do just that one task, but work your way through multiple articles. The overall status of which pages need to be done can be found on the Progress page. If you are planning to work on a page, or want to mark off one that you've already completed, the Progress page is where you can do that.

If you don't see the information you're looking for or you don't understand what to do with it, contact Nephele with any requests/questions.

[edit] Overall page layout and basic information

This task primarily involves cutting and pasting information that is already available on the site, in order to create the basic layout of the new article.

  • Look through the Data page to find a list of places that are ready to be worked on.
  • Take the automatically generated information for a given place from the Data page and paste it into the existing page.
  • Merge the pre-existing information into the newly pasted information as necessary.

More detailed instructions are provided on the data page.

[edit] In-Game Verification

This task primarily involves exploring places in game and confirming that the information provided on the articles is correct. The main chunk of data that is added to the articles (maps, treasure lists, etc.) is generated automatically from the game's Construction Set, but that process has its limitations. Therefore, player verification of all the information is necesary.

Information from gameplay experience needs to be added to the page at several different places. The focus should be on adding information that is not already covered by the maps (i.e., do not try to list every creature/chest shown in the maps, and do not try to replace the maps with detailed descriptions of where an item is located). Also, try to only add details that will be true for all players (i.e., do not describe the boss as a lich, if the boss is actually leveled and could be any type of undead).

  • Add introductory paragraph(s) to each zone/section of the place:
    • 1-2 sentences summarizing the most important features in this area (why is a player likely to go here? what must be done here?)
    • If there is more than one door in and one door out, provide a quick overview of which doors go where and when they will be used. In particular, are there doors that can only be accessed after you have explored the rest of the dungeon?
    • If there are valuable items that a player might miss (e.g., a hidden boss chest), provide a sentence mentioning those items.
    • If there are quest-specific items or areas that can only be accessed during a certain quest, mention them.
    • If there are underwater sections, summarize how extensive they are, whether there is loot in/under the water, and whether water breathing is necessary, recommended, or unnecessary.
  • In the Treasure section:
    • Add information on any obstacles that might make it difficult to get the items (e.g., where are the activation switches for any Varla stone cages?)
    • If necessary, provide some extra information on loot that is mentioned but not shown on the map. For example, for Welkynd Stones, summarize which rooms contain the Welkynd Stones. This does not need to be done for every item, but will occasionally be helpful.
  • In the Traps section:
    • For pressure plates and tripwires, provide information on which trap is activated by the trigger.
    • If the trap can be avoided or deactivated, or if you can take out some enemies with the trap, provide that information.
  • In the Doors and gates section:
    • Provide details on how to open each door (note that the doors that are listed are only those that cannot just be opened by walking up and clicking on them). For example, where is the key to open the door? Where is the activation switch to open it? Can it only be opened from one direction?
  • In general, double check that the information in the map and article agree with what you encounter in game.
    • If some items are not always there, add that information. In particular, quest-specific items often will not appear until the related quest is started.
    • Make sure that the map labels agree with the labels provided in the text.

It is best to do this exploration with a character who has never been in the dungeon before (some things in the dungeon will reset after three days, but not all). You can easily tell when you first enter the dungeon whether you've previously been there: if the dungeon map in your journal is mostly empty/unexplored, then you haven't been there.

The OPRP cleanup category page can be used to find pages that have been updated with new data, but still need to in-game verification. For examples of what pages should look like after the walkthroughs have been added, see the Wenyandawik example, Amelion Tomb, Anga, Bawn, Broken Promises Cave, and Culotte.

[edit] Update maps

This task primarily involves creating images, in particular maps, by combining screenshots and map overlays.

  • Take screenshots in game of the map. Set your game resolution to 1024x768. Use the console command tfow to make entire map visible, then be sure to run through the dungeon to make all of the load doors appear.
    • If you would like to work on maps but cannot take screenshots (i.e., you play on Xbox 360 or PS3), contact Nephele and she will get a set of screenshots and email them to you.
  • Assemble the screenshots into a single map
  • Download the map overlay for the dungeon you are working on (make sure to download the full size png file, not a thumbnail of it).
  • Add the overlay. If the screenshots were taken at 1024x768 resolution, the overlay should be correctly scaled and oriented. All that needs to be done is to position the overlay properly: the black dots are the locations of the load doors.
  • Customize as needed.
  • Upload the assembled map to the site.

More detailed instructions are available on the Map Overlay page.

[edit] Integrate maps into walkthrough

  • Make sure that all map labels are described in the walkthrough (i.e., the boss chest is located at B on the map) and that the labels agree.

[edit] Participants

If you would like to participate in this project, add your name to the list and provide some information on what types of tasks you are working on or would like to work on.

  • Nephele (project leader): primarily involved in coordinating the project and providing data to anyone who wants to contribute.
  • Rpeh (minion): Whatever's necessary, boss.
  • Morodren (contributor): Anything that's needed, though probably focusing more on walkthroughs and copying/pasting location info.
  • Kementari (contributor): Willing to help wherever I can. Not exceptionally talented with manipulating art assets, but can supply a lot of the legwork and written documentation.
  • Eshe (contributor): currently a data-paster; willing to do whatever is necessary.
  • Giamgiam (minion/contributor, mostly minion): Also willing to do whatever is necessary.
  • Playjex (contributor): Wants to help any way needed. Give me a task, I'll do it!
  • Willyhead (contributor): Just handling some of the simple stuff.
  • SubtleCynicism (contributor): Free to do anything except data.
  • Vesna (contributer): Mostly walkthroughs.
  • Rameiz (contributor): Ready to help with anything.
  • SwordSlayer (contributor): Going into dungeons for walkthroughs. ( Adding information to the sewers and related dungeons )
  • TexasWatermelon (pack mule): Walkthroughs, specifically regarding loot/creatures.

[edit] Status

The bulk of the automated work has been done: new maps have been generated for nearly all places, and data has been added to the pages. The majority of the work needed at this point is in-game verification for each of the place pages.

There are a few more places that still need the full treatment (data, maps, and in-game verification):

  • Data for the few places still listed on the Progress page.
  • Check whether all mod-related places have been done.
  • Data and overlays have been generated for all Shivering Isles locations; need to add overlays to maps and do verification.
  • Do the Oblivion Worlds

[edit] Related Tasks

This process is going to add numerous links to other Oblivion articles that provide general information about dungeons and enemies (some of which do not yet exist). Related articles that need major work or need to be created include:

Retrieved from "http://www.uesp.net/wiki/UESPWiki:Oblivion_Places_Redesign_Project"
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