Name: Elsweyr_Leyawiin_Topal Bay Walkabout [ELT]
Author: Angkor

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/30816
Version: 2.3

Date: 6 December 2013
Category: Dungeon, Ayleid, Landscape
Requirements: Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.214, Shivering Isles,
Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina by Iliana:
The 2019 version can be downloaded here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/25023

Many thanks to
Betty for the jungle resources
David Brasher for the daedric resources

Optional but highly recommended:
Akaviri Kojima Extended @ http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40832
ImpIsle Walkabout (junglised) @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/41089/?



====================
0. PRELUDE
====================

Besides being a hommage to Iliana's wonderful "Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina" with this mod I want to honour the names of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs, who I knew as G'Kar and doctor Stephen Franklin in the Babylon 5 sf-space opera.
I've called this mod Elsweyr_Leyawiin_Topal Bay for this is what it is doing, the esp is named Walkabout.esp for this is what it intents to do.


====================
1. SHORT DESCRIPTION
====================


While walking from Elsweyr to Leyawiin along the Topal Bay shoreline, it came to my attention that the landscape here needed an adjustment to the world of beauty I just left behind. So I transformed it into a gardenlike landscape with a hugh [cave/Ayleid]dungeon.
The intention of this mod is to give you a walkabout and without a certain level of confusion there is not much to walk about, so, if you get confused, that's intended :)
The region has the Harborer road as its north border, Elsweyr in the west, Leyawiin County in the east and the Topal Bay shoreline as its south border. Landmarks are fort Walda in the west, Halfway Inn on the shoreline and a lake district - Garden of Th'Lenn - in the east.
The G'Kar Qatsi is a system of interconnected caves with numerous entrances that runs through this entire region. At its heart are the combat caves where you find the best loot, thoughest enemies and the underground entrances to G'Kar's Deep. These combat caves are embedded by a ring system of small interconnected low combat caves. In any default dungeon there is a flow from its entrance to its deepest level where you find the end boss with the best loot, the G'Kar Qatsi however is special because it does not have this flow. Its intention is to give you a free walk with at any moment a free choice between going up or down, left or right or what I call a "walkabout" :)
G'kar's Deep is an ancient Ayleid city. Its main hall is the Gathering and it has a West and East section. In the East you find the Leyawiin entrances, Valendel and the East Wing, where the West section has the Elsweyr entrances, Dalensel and the West Wing, all of these have entrances which can be found above AND under groundlevel. The Gathering has three entrances - East Wing, West Wing and Mara's Heritage - and one exit to the Nol'Y'Bab, which is the transit between G'Kar's Deep and the Rim.
The Rim region has five rooms - Tsu Ghu as an "open room" which connects the Ayleid G'Kar's Deep with the Rim whereas the Tsu Ghu Chasm connects the Tsu Ghu region with the Atatar Loria where you can switch to AKE's Rim region, from the other three rooms - Tai, Lai and Mai - two connect to the Chasm though you need a key to use the doors and - of course - this key can be found in the third room :wink:
Since players can also enter the Chasm via the AKE side there's also a key in the Chasm itself ...
G'Kar's Deep differs from the dungeon in that it has a flow leading you from its entrances via the Gathering to the Rim ...
There are 4 player homes: the Halfway Inn, N'Qat G'Kar, the Stronghold and the Tsu Ghu.
The Halfway Inn is a small cottage on the Topal Bay shore, about halfway between Elsweyr and Leyawiin. It has a [storage] basement and a teleportation room that connects it with the N'Qat G'Kar and the Stronghold and in the landscape you find a ship moared that brings you to either Elsweyr or Leyawiin.
The N'Qat G'Kar is a cave that has five portals connecting it with five small resthouses scattered throughout the dungeon, making this cave a good center for exploration the G'Kar Qatsi from the inside out :)
The Stronghold is in the Red District and will - one day - be the same here ...
The Tsu Ghu is intended as a "contrapoint' on your journey from ELT's G'Kar's Deep to AKE's Nayada where you can relax and find a teleportation ring so you can always "quickly" return to this place and make it your center for exploration ...

There are ingame readmes that follow a timeline, starting with Frankly's notebook at Second Seed 3E428 and ending with San's "The Day After" note dd 3th of Sun's Height 3E434.
At the entrances to this region I've placed respawning desks with useful items and though I've called this mod "walkabout" most times it's really more of a "jumpabout".
Some references to Babylon 5 can be found by those who know, this mod is Tamrielic Lore friendly making it a pleasure for adventurers, travelers and wanderers alike.
One way to enter this mod would be to go south from Leyawiin along the Topal Bay until you find the first readme - Frankly's Welcome - in the shrine near the boat that brings you to the Halfway Inn but any other way would be fine too.

Up until V2.0 this mod was esp only but from now on I will start using resources so I can make a non-default landscape with a "Cambodian Jungle" mood which will integrate fine with AKE's landscape near the Halfway Inn.
However, this will take me a "non zero" number of years to do properly so in the V2.0 upload I'm only starting to introduce some of the new meshes I will use here ...
Celebrating oblivion's 15th anniversary I placed a "tempel" - Nakh Nor and Nakh Loria - with these new resources on the Imperial Isle which I entangled with IWJ's Nakh Nor so both new as returning players will have their fun while exploring.
A spoiler vid showing how to open the gate to the Nakh Loria can be found @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IflXtPkKOUM
I also used Bettys Island asian and David Brasher Daedric resources to retexture ELT's Rim region which is now similar to AKE's Rim with which it connects.





=========
2. QUESTS
=========
All quests are implicit - no pop-ups or markers - and some are supplemental to other Oblivion quests.
As an example, if you find one of the hidden entrances to the Gathering, you won't get a message and if you find there an Ayleid statue you could bring it to Umbacano in the IC.

This being said, there is the Satai Rim Ring Quest and some key quests leading to the keys for the Gathering, the Rim and your player homes.
To summarize:
For the basement you need Frankly's key and in the Halfway Inn cottage is an indication of where to find it.
To enter N'Qat G'Kar via one of the dungeon resthouses you need the Dungeon key which is given to you in the basement and to use the portal that links the N'Qat G'Kar with the Halfway Out you need a key that can be found in the N'Qat G'Kar.To use the Halfway Out portal connecting to the Stronghold you need the Walkabout key which can be found in the Stronghold.
yYou can enter the Gathering via the West or the East Wing but both these entrances need the Key of Gathering, copies of which are hidden in Dalensel and the East Wing. Another way of entering the Gathering is through its hidden entrances: one can be found in the landscape, another in G'Kar's Deep and the last in one of the combat caves in the dungeon, all these lead to Mara's Heritage which has an exit to the Gathering.
And last but not least, to enter Nol'Y'Bab you need the Key of Nol'Y'Bab which can be found in both the Gathering as the Red District - which is a WIP part of the dungeon.

Quest rewards are a bit ambiguous, using FCOM I find the best items on my enemies though skillbooks, soulgems, Welkynd stones[in respawning containers], armor and weapon sets are to be found. There are special containers with ingredients for the mage, warrior or scout modes of playing this game.

Last but not least, there are three teleportation rings to be found:
Satai Inn  brings you to the Halfway Inn Basement,
Satai Tsu  brings you to the Tsu Ghu  and
Satai Loria brings you to the Atatar Loria where AKE and ELT have their entanglement.

And as implicit as all the rest you might try to [find/fight = Quest :) ] your way from G'Kar's Deep via the Rim to AKE's Nayada on Mount Mor'Moth near the Morrowind border ...


================
3. COMPATIBILITY
================
I've made this mod with Iliana's mod loaded first so it's compatible with hers. Moreover, in any case the question was raised I've given her mod priority.
Taking place outside the official oblivion worldspace there is only the FCOM-related issue of creatures being spawned inside rocks. Perhaps someone can take a look at that, though it's not a major problem. From .72 on it is compatible with Kragenir's Death Quest.
It's also compatible with Akaviri Kojima Extended[AKE] [id=40832] which places a playerhome in this region. When using AKE V5 or higher you will find an underground connection between its bathroom and the version 1.00 dungeon. I've mentioned AKE as optional because you won't have any problems playing walkabout without it though many of the readme's will become unintelligible, if you play without Iliana's mod however many tears will ripp your landscape.


=========
4. STATUS
=========

V2.4 Update:
This update has its focus on a better integration between ELT and AKE's junglised Topal Bay.
A problem with ELT here is that there is a steep slope forcing the minotaurs off hill into AKE's Topal Bay landscape modification and to prevent this I've "horizontalised" this slope with big rocks in a junglised landscape ...
Also updated the Halfway Inn and its basement to a more junglised version and I've relocated the Leyawiin boat to a new harbor on the other side of the Topal Bay ...

V2.3 Update:
This update has its focus on the Nakh Nor "Tempel" and the Tsu Ghu Rim section ...
In the Nakh Nor there was a problem with floor sections blocking some paths which is now fixed and in the Tsu Ghu I changed the "Attribute Enhancing" obelisks into BhaRhaTah statues and upgraded the secret wall near the Rim Gate connecting the dungeon with the Tsu Ghu player house
and - last but not least - with many thanks for Oblivionaddicted showing the problem :thumbsup: - I used TES4Edit to remove all worldspace cells which were given "an abnormally high water level" ...
A vid showing some of it can be found @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/videos/1916

V2.2 Update:
This update has its focus on the Nakh Nor "Tempel" I made - celebrating Oblivion's 15th - in the NW of the City Isle. I have rebuild the previous version and made some changes to the Nakh Loria which connect this Tempel with the Atatar Loria where ELT gets entangled with IWJ's Nor cave.
Also updated the player home in the Tsu Ghu ..
A vid showing some of it can be found @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/videos/1746
On 10th september I updated the walkabout.esp by giving the Nakh Nor map marker its proper name ...

Version 2.1.
This update has its focus on the Rim region where the "player house" Tsu Ghu had its asian conversion, the "magical portals"
had their name changed into "Rim Gates" and there were some
asiafications of the other rim rooms too ...
There's also an entanglement now between ELT and IWJ via a structure in the default
Ayleid "Atatar Loria" that connects ELT's Nakh Nor tempel with IWJ's
House Of The Emerging BhaRhaTah.
I was unhappy with the lighting in ELT's Tempel so I've removed the "Behave Like Exterior" option ...
Some vids showing the new Rim can be found:
Atatar Loria AKE ELT Entanglement @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/videos/1679
Tsu Ghu Travel @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/videos/1687
Tsu Ghu player house @ https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/videos/1686

version 2.0.
Celebrating oblivion's 15th anniversary a daedric Rim intervention and a new "Cambodian mooded" Temple on the Imperial Isle
which is entangled with IWJ's Nakh Nor.

version 1.20.
I've finally made the Rim connection between the deepest caves of AKE with those of ELT ...
So - in theory at least - one can now enter G'Kar's Deep at the Topal Bay
and see daylight again somewhere on Mount Mor'Moth near the Morrowind
border :)

version 1.10.
Major landscape adjustments have been made to lower the load on your savegame and to increase FPS and stability.
To do this I have replaced most flora containers in the landscape with
identical looking flora statics and I have replaced the open rowboat
doors leading to and from the Halfway Inn with boats that have an
interior, giving you a safe place to make a save game before entering
the landscape.
The AKE_ELT transition cave has been updated. In the editor I've given this cave lighting, fog and water but none of these
showed ingame so I've adjusted the cave for this.
I've rebuild the Halfway teleportation by making a new room [Halfway Out] with two
magical portals, one to the Stronghold in the Red District and the other
to the N'Qat G'Kar, both these portals are locked and the keys can be
found in their destinations :)

Version 1.00.
I haven't touched the landscape so it is as it was.
G'Kar dungeon.
Has been extended with the Ring system. This system originated from
Razacovek's remark in the comments section of this mod concerning the
consistency of the dungeon and it is not only a radical change in the
layout but also a massive expansion of its volume.
G'Kar's Deep.
Has been revamped and - where neccessary - rebuild to make it "a shiny beacon in the dark".
The Rim.
The first three rooms have been opened and made accessible for public use.
AKE-Walkabout.
For AKE users, up from version 5 the Topal Bay playerhouse now has in its
bathroom a connection with the Rickety G'Kar cave which is part of the
version 1.00 G'Kar Qatsi.

Version 0.72.
The landscape is at 75%, the dungeon at about 99%, fort Walda about 25% and the Ayleid city is still unknown. There is an Oblivion portal in fort Walda and an Oblivion door in the Gathering, both leading "nowhere" in this version.
This being said, 0.72 is fully playable and enjoyable, see the comments section for update references.

Future Versions ..
Having a new look into a junglised landscape ...
Some of the old combat caves need some serious revamping but most must be rebuild, I'm thinking Algos style [see AKE]. With this done I can finetune the entire dungeon to make it more of a unity.
Though on my pc framerate is not a problem, some of the bigger complexes in G'kar's Deep might be split - this depends on player input through the comments section.
Extentions of the Rim.



A French translation - with many thanks to A. - of V0.72 of this mod can be found at the La Confrérie website:
www.confrerie-des-traducteurs.fr/oblivion/mods/cyrodiil/lieux/periple_dans_la_baie_de_topal.php

And for all concerned, I give my full permission for you to upload the Walkabout mod to any website relevant, just inform me, that's enough :)

=========
5. ISSUES
=========
Fps,fps,fps .. I could say that the next generation pc will solve this, but if anyone could force Oblivion to use memory properly, problems might be solved here and now. I left this one in because now I'm playing with he next generation of pc, Windows 7 - 64 bits and use the RAM booster so FPS is no longer a problem for me. If you're still playing with XP - 32 bits however, know that there is a - relative - simple solution to ALL your problems :)
Also, if you want to use this mod to benchmark your pc, numerous BenchMarks have been placed throughout the landscape.
There are some heavy loads here, so always make a safe before going through a load door and if you have a huge fps-drop after going through, make a new safe and reload, it might help.
At times creatures spawn inside rocks, use console TCL to deal with that.
I've made transition caves between landscape and dungeon or Ayleid which are very small and excellent places for a safe save game.


=======
6. TIPS
=======
Be well prepared.
Check your savegame for the Abomb.
If Hard locklevel is anything more than only an annoyance, you are not well prepared !!
Any door you want to use, SAVE first !!!.
Perhaps one day those fine people in Alabaster start buying stuff, but until that day there is no barter in this region, so do not forget your Midas chest or something ..
When your FPS is very low in the Lake Region, turn off all shadows and water reflections in your ingame video options menu. When your FPS is very low everywhere in the landscape, turn off distant lands in the ingame video menu.
If you think the caves are too bright, lower your gamma in this ingame video options menu.
Most enemies don't have a Detect Life, so invisibility might work ...
Using Midas Astral Combat you can fight your enemies one at a time ...
Be sure your weapons and spells do serious damage ...
Spare your potions for you'll need them later ...
Oh, and if death is all you find here, they say it's good fishing weather in Elsweyr, you can always come back later :)


Concluding this readme with the words of Frankly Steve:
Have fun on your walkabout and who knows,
maybe you meet yourself here ...
Hope you like it ...

And the new Keeper of the Garden of Th'Lenn has asked me to add:
.. we don't want the WRONG people here,
so if you value your life ..
.. be somewhere else ..


================
7. ENTANGLEMENTS
================
For me there are 4 ways that mods can interact with each other:
1. Patching where you leave both mods unaltered but connect them with an extra esp file.
2. Integration where you adapt one mod leaving the other untouched.
3. Merger where you rebuild both mods into a new esp while destroying the old esp's.
4. Entanglement where you modify both mods in a default cell giving the feeling of a merger but leaving the mods independent.
ELT is integrated with Illiana's Elsweyr and has three entanglements with my other mods AKE and IWJ.
In AKE there's a dungeon connection with the Azura player house and in the Rim there's a connection between AKE's Sh'Lath and the Tsu Ghu.
In IWJ there's a connection between IWJ's "House Of The Emerging BhaRhaTah" and ELT's Temple.

============
8. THANK YOU
============
Jill Bolte Taylor @ http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

for showing me the importance of the creative process.
Bethesda for giving me such fine tools to work with.
Aliera Caine for your support for this work.
David Brasher for his Daedric textures.
Tamara for her tropical flora.
And last but not least Betty for - almost :) - everything she has done :thumbsup:
All the other modders of this community without whom I would have stopped playing this game a long time ago ..
And all those who liked my work enough to post a comment about it ...

Thank You All :)