Highwood
by Ithlia and Hickory

1. Overview
2. Detailed Description
3. Installing
4. Un-Installing
5. Conflicts
6. Known Issues and Other Facts
7. Contact


1. Overview

Highwood is a unique (some might say quirky) and very interactive player home that must be earned via a small quest.


2. Detailed Description

What is Highwood? Highwood is difficult to describe. It started out as a farm simply because I wanted a windmill. However along the way it grew into something much more. Some of Highwood is what you would expect, utilitarian and predictable. However some of it is very fanciful and unexpected. These things were the result of a lot of communication between Hickory and I. Through the exchange of ideas, some quirky and delightful things happened. Hickory and I got a great deal of enjoyment from working on this mod. We tried some new things and learned some new things. Highwood was built with our gaming interests and our characters in mind. As a result you will find a lot of us in Highwood, including portraits of our characters in the main house. Hickory created all of the artwork for Highwood, and a lot of the sounds. He even made me some textures including the bold sunflower texture that I wanted for a wall mural.

Highwood sits on the hill overlooking Anvil, just down the road from Gweden Farm. It has a wonderful view from the front deck. Highwood consists of the
main house which has everything you might expect. A front sitting area which boasts extensive weapon and armor storage, a kitchen with a big larder, a
bathroom, an upstairs study and a bedroom. Outside you will find the windmill that houses a small brewery for beer and wine. The attached mill house contains everything you might need for potion making. There is a small cottage for the art studio and guest room. Behind the main house there is a good sized vegetable garden. There are flowers scattered all over the property as well as some beehives because a good garden needs bees. There is plenty of safe storage throughout all the buildings. Lastly there is a stable for your horse and a forge for gear repair. Opps, I almost forgot about Truffles. He is the pet pig who is fascinated with the larder for some reason. Highwood contains many unique items and features, including our own ingredients, potions, wine, soup, stew, coffee, meat, and even Highwood's own health candy bars. There is a lot of hidden things going on that many people might not even notice, like the resident ravens and bees will not stay out in the rain, or at night. There are also hidden, and not so hidden treats. In Highwood you should explore everything; click on everything, but most of all, have fun.

We knew all along that we would be sharing Highwood so we tried to keep it fun, interesting and as useful as possible. Our vision of Highwood was that it was once home to a couple that had lived and worked there for many years. She was a painter and tended the gardens. She had a great love for sunflowers so you will find them in many places throughout Highwood. He was a skilled hunter and an accomplished builder. Highwood has the clutter of a lifetime that was spent building, creating and collecting. Plants have had time to work their way into every nook and cranny of the yard. Outbuildings sprang up to house the interests and needs of Highwood’s occupants. In short Highwood is a very busy place. We understand that Highwood isn't for everyone. If you like a barebones uncluttered home, you are not going to like Highwood. If you prefer strictly lore friendly homes, you are not going to like Highwood. So please don’t bother to tell us that it is too high end, or too cluttered, or too big. Or that it needs this or that or something else. It is what it is and it is what Hickory and I want it to be.


3. Installation

Manual
Unpack the archive directly into your \Oblivion\Data\ folder and confirm to overwrite any folders.
Activate Highwood.esp in Oblivion Launcher or your favourite mod manager.

Optional plugins are available:
Highwood-Cobl-Support.esp gives support for those who use Cobl
Highwood-OOO-Patch.esp is a small patch for Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul users, that fixes the nearby Ranger camp.


OMOD
Move the OMOD to your \Oblivion\obmm\Mods\ folder and start up OBMM
Double click on the Highwood OMOD and select options from the script
It should turn blue when installed


BAIN
Install Core files and either/or optional support plugins


4. Un-Installing

Manual

Remove the following folders and files from your \Oblivion\Data\ folder:
\Meshes\HighwoodFarm\
\Textures\HighwoodFarm\
\Textures\Menus\Icons\HighwoodFarm\
\Sound\FX\HighwoodFarm\
\Highwood.esp

Optionals, if used
\Highwood-Cobl-Support.esp
\Highwood-OOO-Patch.esp


OMOD
Double click on the Highwood OMOD
It should turn green when uninstalled


BAIN
Right click / Uninstall


5. Conflicts

Slight issue with a nearby ranger camp if OOO is installed. Patch included for this.

It has been reported that New Roads And Bridges Revised loading after Highwood causes incompatibilities in the landscape. Since neither myself nor Ithlia have this installed, we cannot provide patch support.


6. Known Issues and Other Facts

To make this mod what it is, certain high quality and high poly meshes and hi-res textures were used. On low to middle systems this may cause lag or low FPS in some areas. All reasonable means have been taken to try to ease this, but these steps will only help to a certain degree. Please, before making complaints about low FPS or crashing on fast travel, be aware of this fact: this mod was made for Ithlia and Hickory in the way we wanted it to be. We have no issues with it on our systems. Therefore we will be making no changes due to low FPS or related issues.

Note from Hickory: It was decided not to PyFFI the meshes in this mod, as it caused problems with some collision meshes. This is probably due to the fact that some meshes may have already gone through the PyFFI treatment. So it is suggested that the meshes in \HighwoodFarm\ are NOT PyFFI'd.

The plugin has been cleaned, and containes no ITM or UDR records.


7. Contact

Contact us on TESNexus