Ancient Towers
a Player House/Base Mod
by WillieSea
version 1.3.0 06/25/2008
version 1.3.0 06/29/2011 Guard Patch
The guard patch adds an activator in the 'Lab' that makes all 'newly' spawned outside guards friendly to the player. The display room also has some 'auto-sorters' for your equipment. To use, in sneak mode, activate the sign. Not complete or tested much so use at your discreasion.

- Not a quest mod.
- Contains UBER items and activities. See below.
- Suspend your disbelief, its a game.

Requirements
============
- Oblivion v1.2.0416
- Shivering Isles (or your game will crash)

One day, you find yourself traveling South on the Yellow road. After passing the bridge over the Corbolo River, you are attacked by a bandit screaming wildly at you. After dispacthing the crazy thief, you see a tent in the woods with a strange light emanating from it. You cautiously look around and slowly approach the bandits camp site. On a rock inside the tent are several glowing welkyd gems, and next to them is a scroll with the bandits diary explaining his most recent adventure in the hills to the East. He found a set of ancient towers guarded by amazing creatures of great power. Will you be able to gain control of this fabulous site? Can you defeat the tower guardians?

Towers Background
=================
The towers are multi-dimensional structures that are wholely not in the world of Cyrodiil. During the recent crisis with the Oblivion Gates tearing holes in the fabric of space-time, a rift occured allowing the Ancient Towers to once more inhabit the realms of Cyrodiil. Because they are dimensional, you may notice that certain rooms don't seem to fit the two towers space. This is becuase the rooms are not in Cyrodiil, but some other dimension. (Map rooms, shops, display room and its guest quarters)
The towers were built by a now long dead race who were masters of dimension travel, as well as harnessing the power of the stars. This energy is what powers the towers lights and other conviencences. There have been many previous 'owners' of the towers, although nobody can truely lay claim to them for more than a lifetime. The towers may seem to ramble around, but this is because the many previous owners built sections of the towers when they 'owned' them.

UPDATES:
========
version 1.3.0 06/25/2008 Removed changes to vanilla objects. Cleaned up ESP file.

version 1.3.1 06/25/2008 For NON-EXNEM players. Same changes as for v1.3.0. This will replace the Exnem clothing on some NPC's with vanilla game meshes. Also includes text file in each folder that describes what meshes were used in the replacement. You can then update if you would like with your own body clothing mods. This includes an ESP that must be activated instead of the original one for v1.3.0

---> SPLIT FILE INSTRUCTIONS <---
IMPORTANT: This was made for people with limited access to the internet and allows seperate, smaller files to download and recombine on your computer.
NOTE: You must rename the files you download to the following format.
AncientTowersV11Split001.7z -> AncientTowersV11Split.7z.001
AncientTowersV11Split002.7z -> AncientTowersV11Split.7z.002
AncientTowersV11Split003.7z -> AncientTowersV11Split.7z.003
Then you would use 7z to open the 001 archive and extract all files. All three files must be in the same folder for this to work. You would then install the extracted files like normal.
IMPORTANT: If you have 'Hide Known File Extensions' turned on, you may think you are renaming the file correctly, but the extension .7z may still be on the end of your file (it will be hidden from you). The files must end in the 001 through 003 or you cannot unpack it.

===============================================================
Known Issues and Cautions IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE - READ THIS!
===============================================================

1. This mod has a re-openable oblivion gate. Any mod that changes the >Door >OblivionGateToTamriel object could cause a Crash To Desktop (CTD) upon returning from the Oblivion gate. Or, most likely, the Oblivion Gate will not work at all.

2. You MUST have Shivering Isles installed 'CORRECTLY' or YOUR GAME WILL CRASH TO DESKTOP when you approach the towers. Verify that you have SI activated in your mod list. Your game version should be 1.2.0416 or higher, look in the bottom left of the main game menu.

3. If you use 'Over-haul' or script intensive mods (OOO, Frans, Deadly Reflex, Companion Mods, etc..) you may have issues in the training room and over-summon monsters to fight. I have a few scripts (optimized to only run when necessary) and the other mods can interfer, or cause CTD's. I recommend caution in summoning vast hoards of creatures in the training room.

4. Computers with small video memory (less than 512MB) 'may' have some issues. I have optimized the textures as much as possible. Its best not to wander all the rooms in one sitting, or to summon hoards of monsters in the training room. That is a lot of textures your game may not be able to handle.

5. If you have 'borders' turned on (Those "Turn back" messages) then you will not be able to walk around the second tower. The secondary key to the towers is there if the Master Knight cannot be found. You can edit your game settings to turn borders off if you wish.
Edit this file using a text editor like notepad:

\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini
Change this: "bBorderRegionsEnabled=1" to this: "bBorderRegionsEnabled=0".

6. Do NOT install the folder called 'DistantLOD' if you have other mods that you want to see the distant buildings for. If you install this one, the other distant LOD's will not work anymore. Or, you can install this one if you would rather see it over the others you may have. Problems with distand LOD are game engine related, not mod related. You may see objects from distant load be offset or missing at certain distances and angles.

7. Many of the 'special' clothing uses Exnems body mesh, and might cause some clipping on the NPC's bodies. Check for the version that removes this restriction.

8. If you can't find something, look at the map diagram of the towers. Some rooms are discussed in the cheat section at the bottom of this text document.

9. Conflicts:
- Mannimarco Resurrected: Ayleid Ruin
- Myths and Legends: Small Shrine


INSTALLATION
============
1. Download the 7z file.
2. Unpack the 7z file to your game folder \Oblivion\Data\*
3. Activate the mod.
4. Play the game.


Add your own Portrait to the game
=================================
The texture file (in DDS format) at this location can be changed to add your portrait to the throne room.
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\WillieSea\AncientTowers\painting\lordpainting00.dds
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\WillieSea\AncientTowers\painting\lordpainting00_n.dds
Here is a link to a retexture guide so you can make your own DDS texture file.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Retex_Guide


Starting the Mod
================
Heading South on the Yellow road, South of the Corbolo River, on the right is a bandit camp. He has a diary explaining his most recent adventure in the hills to the East.
- Check the included map for his location and route he took.


The Ancient Tower chambers, rooms and facilities:
=================================================
Arboretum
---------
- A secluded exterior location that contains all the plants from both vanilla and SI.
- The lights come on at night, and go off during the day.
- Don't bother trying to scale the rock walls, there is nothing outside the walls.

Map Room: Cyrodill
------------------
- This contains a 3D map of Cyrodiil with teleport locations marked on it. Click the object and be teleported to that place in Cyrodiil.
- The shrine teleports will give you the items needed to start the shrine quests.

Map Room: Shivering Isles
-------------------------
- This contains a 3D map of the Shivering Isles with teleport locations marked on it. Click the object and be teleported to that place in SI.
- YOU WILL SUFFER LAGS IN THIS ROOM, PERIOD! The 3D map object has not been made effecient and WILL cause stutters in your frame rates, especially when turning.

Secret Chamber
--------------
- A hidden away necromancer type lair. Can you find it?
- Read the book to learn how to use the Necro Altar to create black soul gems.
- A small maze has NPC's who wander its pathways. Use the buttons to see how many you can destroy before they make it through the maze. Each death puts some treasure in the chest outside the room.

Recreation room
---------------
- Contains a pool with fish in it and a refreshing water fall to stand under.
- Dice game can be 'played' by touching the game. (Hover above the board and dice until you see the text, "Play Dice game".) The dice will spin around allowing you to count up the winner.
- Chess set. Click the board to reset the chess pieces.
- Ayleid style grandfather clock.
- Sauna will first heal, then restore abilities, then cure you. You must hang out in the sauna for a while for this all to happen.
- Visit one of the few restrooms in all of Cyrodiil. Working sink, shower and toilet.

Throne Room
-----------
- There are display cases and some storage chests in this room to hide your plunder away in.

Prison Cell
-----------
- There is a dark elf vampire in one of the cells. There are three buttons that do different things. Perhaps I just don't like dark elves or vampires very much.
- There is a secret door in this area. If you can't find it, you were not paying attention to the beginning of the game.

Oblivion Gate room
------------------
- Contains a re-openable gate to the random Oblivion realms. Flip the claw lever and it will re-open.
- No creatures will spawn around the gate, or follow you back.
- The containers in this room respawn, so you don't want to store stuff here.

Training Facility
-----------------
- The bottom floor of the arena has an openable cabinet with five buttons. Clicking on one of the buttons will allow you to summon a different creature to fight.
- Undead, Daedra, Animal, Shivering Isles and Creatures may be summoned.
- You can summon as many as you wish, but the bodies will begin to pile up.
- The two gates automatically close behind you, so don't get in their way.
- Depending on the level of creature you summon, the 'basin' will fill with treasure. Low level fights will not gain you any treasure in the basin.
- There is a button to raise or lower a gate in front of the creature summon tunnels. You can trap the creatures in the passage to practice your magic or archery skills on them.
- You can turn on or off a force field to keep the creatures in the arena.
- After the first gate is a button you can press to incinerate the corpses. It only works on corpses.
- On the upper deck, from the balcony, you can summon creatures to fight each other. There is also a button to destroy the creatues in the arena.
- If you fall or jump into the arena when you have the gate locked from the other side, you must use the console to escape. ('TCL' in the console then move yourself out of the arena.)

Enchantress Shop
----------------
- The door transports you to another dimension where the Mystical Enchantress shop resides. Serena, the owner of the shop, has 25000 gold available for barter. (Unless you have a mod that adjusts merchant barter gold.)
- There is a magical whirlpool on the floor, that when you enter it, you gain a 'leveled' fortification to your health, fatigue and magicka for a limited time.
- The Enchantress has several 'outfits' that she wears. She changes them when she feels like it. There are three different variations of the outfit.
- There is a chance that there will be another customer in this shop.

Enchantress Shop Upstairs
-------------------------
- There is an Alchemy sorter that will take your vanilla and SI ingredients and place them in the appropriate ingredient jars.
- There are many unlabeled jars for mod related, or speical quest related ingredients.
- In the attic there are speical Golden Apparatus that will give you a complete set of apperatus, based on your Alchemy skill. From <25 Basic set, up to =100 Master set.

Mystic Smithy
-------------
- The door transports you to another dimension where the Mystical Smithy shop resides. Kiara, the owner of the shop, has 50000 gold available for barter. (Unless you have a mod that adjusts merchant barter gold.)
- The Smith as two outfits that she wears. She changes them when she feels like it.
- There is a chance that there will be another customer in this shop.

Bedroom
-------
- This room features a gemstone shower, to help you sleep better. Its also fun to just watch...
- Sometimes, a gem may become stuck. It will be reset the next time you load a saved game.
- Wall clock with pendulum and the customary tic toc sound.

Kitchen
-------
- Using ingredients, bake your own delicious goodies right in the kitchen.
- Contains a 'Freeze Master' cooler, powered by a Frost Atronach.
- Working double sink with water that moves up and down.
- Merchant cook you can buy ingredients from.
- Make dough at the bakers table on the black block.
- Make cookies and tarts at the bakers table using the small bowl.
- Make pies at the bakers table using the large bowl.
- Make rolls by using the roll tin on the shelf above the bakers table.
- Read the recipe book to learn what you need to make each baked item.

Library
-------
- This room contains many books, but NO Skill Books!
- The upper shelves are 'pictures' of books, and not really there. This is to help with framerates, to give the illusion of a full library, while still getting good FPS.
- If you wish to stock a shelf with trophies, open the console, click on the book face mesh, and type 'disable' to get rid of it. You can now place items on the shelves behind the face mesh.
- One lower shelf and one whole section have been left empty for you to use as you wish.
- Two large aquariums and a fireplace grace the room. Looking straight up can make the 'water mesh' vanish on the tanks. This is a game flaw with transparencies.

Labratory (Uber Room)
---------------------
- The containers in this room are not safe to store stuff in. They respawn (except for the drawers next to the Varla Stone summons.)

- Ruby Weapon wall
-- You may select any weapon from the wall. When you do, you can select an enchantment to go with the weapon.
--- Decay: Health damage for 25 points and the 'push away' spell to knock them down.
--- Fire: Fire Damage for 25 points and the 'push away' spell to knock them down.
--- Frost: Frost Damage for 25 points and the 'push away' spell to knock them down.
--- Shock: Lightning Damage for 25 points and the 'push away' spell to knock them down.
-- You may only select one of each type of weapon. If you want a different enchantment, put the weapon back and select it again.
-- If you sell or loose a weapon, you will never be able to get that weapon from the wall again.
-- Putting a weapon on the wall can also be used to recharge and repair it.

- Ruby Armor Stand
-- You may select any armor piece from the stand. These are pre-enchanted seperately.
-- You may only select one of each armor piece. Or you can select everything at once.
-- If you sell or loose an armor piece, you will never be able to get that armor piece from the wall again.
-- Putting armor back on the stand can also be used to repair it.

- 'Deadly' style spells. Can give or take away the spell (touch it twice). Only useful to a Master in the appropriate art.
- Cupboard of Overflowing Food. Like it says, everytime you open it, it gets more food in it.
- Winerack of overflowing Drinks. Like it says, everytime you open it, it gets more drinks in it.

- Soul Gems button. Click it for a random empty soul gem.
- Varla stone button. Click it for a varla stone. This can only be used once a day.

- Spell Tomes - Each spell has a rod next to it that will remove the spell from the player.
-- Transport Home - Gives a spell that allows you to teleport to any pad at the towers, or the last place you were when you cast the spell.
-- Summon Warhorse - Cast the spell once, and you will summon the horse to you. Cast the spell again and you will send the horse back to its own dimension.
FEATURES
- The horse is fast, will fight with you, and has a natural ability to heal itself. It is also essencial, so cannot die.
- Activate the horse in 'sneak' mode and you can access the saddlebags. The horse can carry a lot of stuff. You should not fill the bags too full of different items, as this will slow your game down when you access the bags.
- If the horse starts attacking you because you hit him too many times, cast the Invoke Mara spell on him to stop the combat. Or just send him back home to stop the combat. Summon him again and all will be well.
-- Dungeon Delver - Cast it to get 100 Chameleon, 100 Detect life, and Night eye for 180 turns.
-- Nocturnals Grace - Cast this to have your crimes be forgotten.
-- Restorative Ability - Cast this on any other person or creature to give them the ability to restore health:25, fatigue:5 and magicka:5.
-- Push Away - Viciously shove others away from you. The strenght of the spell is based on the current weight that the target creatue is carrying.
-- Invocation - Invoke Ebonarm will cause others to start fighting you, Invoke Mara will cause others to stop fighting with you.
-- Turn to Wood - Temporarily turn target into a woody structure. They can still move a bit, but are rooted to the spot, and cannot attack back. Easy targets.

- Crystal Ball of Ingredient multiply. All Vanilla and SI ingredients will be multiplied that are in your inventory.
- Crystal Ball of Restoration. Restores all abilities a bit, and cures poison and disease.

- Crystal Balls of Attribute gain (x1 and x5). Increase your stats as much as you like. Be warned, this can make the game less fun if abused.
- Crystal balls of Skill gain. Increase your skills the easy way. Goes towards leveling up. Be warned, this can make the game less fun if abused.

- Lead Ball that weights 5000. This will maximize the weight you can carry when you wear the armor piece that has feather, 5000. Get the gauntlet and pick up the lead ball. Put the gauntlet on, then drop the lead ball back on the counter. You will now be able to carry your maximum weight right away.

Watcher the ghostly cat
-----------------------
- You may first meet him at the entrance to the towers. Then, there is a chance that he could show up in other places within the towers. If you get to close to him, he vanishes from sight.

Nirnroots
---------
All the nirnroots in the marble planters respawn quickly. They are magical plants, and grow rather fast in the welkyd stone rich dirt of the planters. Every midnight, when the star power is at its height, the nirnroots 'regrow' to be picked again


CREDITS
====================
WillieSea - Entire mod (objects, scripts).
- All Re-textures (just about everything in the place).
- Glass Pane creation.
- Exnemized Ruby Armor & Weapons ReTexure
- Welkyd light fixtures edited to remove candles.
- Clocks
-- Always Z for the Clock face mesh.
-- Jannix Quinn, Ryu Doppler for the Clock Hands.
- Spell Tomes textures and spell effects.
- Recreated some baked goods so they have physics.

Contributers listed in no particular order:
-------------------------------------------
Hel Borne for the Empire Enchanting Altar, Empire Throne, Wand Foci, UC Weapon Racks resources.
Phoenixamon for the fireplace resource.
Texian for the Water Static resource.
Phitt for the chandelier, chess set and dice mesh resources.
mmmpld for the Anywhere Sittable mod resource.
chigga for the Thermae Bath mod mesh resources.
AlienSlof for the horse base and horse rein resources.
Gabriel Gullbergh for the Saddlebag mesh resource.
Xiamara for the Bedroom Set, Full Wine Racks, Pillow Mesh Set and Sofa mesh resources.
Spirited Treasure for the Huntress Outfit for Exnem resource.
KafeiDotour & Grhys for the Dark/White Rose Armor for Exnem resource.
Daleth for the Book Jackets mod texture 're-use' resource.
XMarksTheSpot for the Glittering Prizes gemstones resource.
Vality7 for the Original 3D Map of Cyrodiil (M56 for the texture) and Shivering Isles resources.
MaRzY for his many hours of work on the Optimized 3D Map of Cyrodiil with collision added.
Glypha for the Gem Sword 'Emelfein' and shield mesh. Copyrighted Material (© Glypha) Re-used with permission.
Liquid Graphics Interactive for the 'Evil Spider' mesh and texture.
Cryonaut(model edit/rigging), Xmarksthespot(UVmapping), Grimeath(texture), Renzeekin(Tropical Skin) for the Giant Spiders. WillieSea for the static version.
Cryo_(model/rigging), Grimdeath(texture/sounds) - Dwemer Spiders.
Supernatural (aka Airskid) & Growlf - Bodysuit.
Threedees - Stormtrooper armor set.
Jannix Quinn - Chicken Egg mesh, used with permission.
Phitt - Fish tank resource. WillieSea edit of the fishtank to make it taller and wider, but retain the same thickness.

And most importantly to:
Bethesda for the game and construction set.

Play Testers: (Initial)
-----------------------
Ferrarigirl
Immortal-D
jackthehedge
Many many others for trying the Beta versions.

Idea Contributers in no particular order:
-----------------------------------------
Immortal-D
Sage Rime
MrHeron
Darina
Ferrarigirl
jackthehedge
Thraxonas
Lingwei
Vonyor
PRO 6AM3R
Buddah
Gamemastr35
Killer911
PostFatal
Reallybigjohnson
Showler
StormbringerGT

If I missed anybody, or any resource credits, please inform me. :)


Legal and Permissions
=====================
- You can re-use any of the objects, textures or scripts from this mod, as long as you give credit where it is due. Anything not specifically pointed to in the credits section are probably my work (WillieSea). (retextures)
- You may convert it to another language, but you must keep the original English readme file intact and point to the download site on TESNexus.
- You can contact me on the Bethsoft forum at http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showforum=25 and send me a PM. If I do not answer within a month, you may do as you wish with the mod (But still give credit where it is due).

Version History
===============
version 1.3.0 06/25/2008 Removed changes to vanilla objects. Cleaned up ESP file.
version 1.3.1 06/25/2008 For NON-EXNEM players. Same changes as for v1.3.0.

Old Versions
===============
version 1.2.0 05/10/2008 Fixed spelling error and Health Decay to be a 'target' spell. Added Disrobe spell.
version 1.2.1 05/10/2008 Fixed spelling error and Health Decay to be a 'target' spell. For NON-EXNEM play. Does not contain disrobe spell.
version 1.1 04/01/2008 Issues fixed.
version 1.1.1 04/08/2008 Issues fixed. NON-EXNEM version.
version 1.0 03/29/2008 Initial release.


==================
Spoilers and Hints
==================
Only read if you don't want to find the stuff yourself.

Everything below this is a spoiler.

The hints are incremental, meaning it gives a clue, one at a time.

Oblivion Gate Room:
-------------------
1. Look in the prison cells.

2. Remember at the start of the game where you began, and how you escaped prison?

3. There is a secret button on the wall of the first cell on your left as you enter the prison.

4. After you open the secret door, follow the passage to the Oblivion Gate Room.


Necro Lair:
-----------
1. You can find the Necro Lair by looking in the Shivering Isles Map room.

2. It is against the wall behind some bushes and rocks.

3. Its under the 'clock' that shows the time.


Mystery/Easter Egg Chamber: (Obvious credits room with a cheat item)
---------------------------
1. You can find this by the broken light fixture.

2. Its in the Tunnel that seperates the two towers.

3. Its a secret wall panel right near the broken welkyd stones on the floor.

4. The key can be found by taking a swim.

5. The key is in the pool, as you walk into the room, right in the middle, by a stalagmite.

6. The key goes to the hidden safe/vault in the wall.

7. The hidden safe is behind my avatar picture. It cannot be picked or cheated open.