Name: Ships Made Simple Resource Pack
Version: V 1.1
Date: 08/23/2013
Category: Modder Resources
Requirements: Oblivion CS and whatever other tools you prefer
Author: mhahn123



Update 1.1
==========

Simply added the Bloated Float houseboat nif and it's main cabin interior. Not sure why I
didn't do that in the first place but it's here now. 



Description
===========

One of my favorite things to mod in Oblivion have been the ships, especially since there wasn't
much to start with. The complete lack of diversity in the vanilla game really left a blank canvas
for me to experiement with. As with many other things in Oblivion however, there are challenges, 
more nuisance than obstacle really, but they needed to be dealt with. 

The biggest being how many individual pieces one has to manipulate into place in order to assemble
even one ship. This resource pack was my attempt to simplify the process somewhat while working on
a shipping mod project. 

While it took some time to assemble things into one piece meshes, the time it saved over the 
long run was well worth the effort. I thought for others who wish to make custom ships, this may
help them avoid some of the hassles I experienced. 


Details
========

To give a better example of what this does, lets take a look at a basic ship assembly in the construction
set. The Serpent's Wake for example is a basic ship design and consists of these pieces:

1. BloatedFloat01.nif (hull)
2. MainDeck01.nif (main flooring, stairs, door frame, etc.)
3. ShipCabin01.nif (rear upper deck, windows, some trim work)
4. MainMast01.nif (masts, sails, rope, rigging)
5. BoatSideRivets01.nif (these are the heavy side planks with the big rivets) optional decoration

So for even a basic ship there are possibly five separate pieces that have to be properly aligned when
placing them in the game. Not horribly difficult mind you, but tedious, and time consuming in order to
assemble without unsightly gaps. Ship interiors are even more demanding. The basic main deck ship interior
consists of two separate full cabin pieces, two ceiling pieces, two floor pieces, four wall corner pieces, 
seven wall pieces, and up to 3 doors. 

Consider the time it takes to retexture all these pieces for a custom ship, place them individually, align
them to eliminate unsightly gaps...and you get a better picture of how time consuming ship building can be.

What I have done is assemble the various bits into single, one piece nifs. Making them much easier for the
modder to deal with. Now you need only drag one item into the CS render window, no tedious alignment to 
worry about. Also makes retexturing much easier. Vanilla texture properties have been combined already.
Replacing a given texture will automatically replace every instance of that texture on the entire mesh.    

Some of Mr siikas ship models have also been simplified and in a few cases had bugs fixed. The cog ship is
another good example of tedium. It consists of no fewer than eight pieces to fully assemble, and didn't
include a door frame, or helm. Now has missing elements included and is only one piece.


Contents
========

1. Full meshes for both the basic vanilla ship and the vanilla pirate ship. Also full interior
   cabin meshes for each.

2. Full mesh for Mr Siika's Cog ship which includes an integrated door frame and helm steering wheel.

3. Full mesh for Mr Siika's Corvette ship. It actually already comes like this in the basic package.
   This model had two misaligned pieces which which really bugged me. Nephenee13 was kind enough to
   fix the problems for me, I thought it only right to share but she gets full credit for the fixes.
   I've gone further and applied Nephenee's fixes to all four versions of this ship model.

4. Full mesh for both versions of Mr Siika's Nordic Longship.

5. Full mesh for four versions of Mr Siika's Elven Galley Hull 02 which includes an added cabin 
   door frame on the rear deck and a separate door mesh which previously didn't exist. Most modders
   were using an ayleid ruin door for this ship. I borrowed the idea and retextured it to match 
   with actual elven ship wood, a door handle, and small window. Also added a retextured floor hatch
   and ladder for the interior. I didn't add the ballistas...you can do that if you want them. 

6. Improved Elven Galley interior 01. The original had no steps or door frame which would lead to the 
   rear deck of the ship. I've added those elements in so one could place a door and have it not
   look ridiculous.

7. Full meshes for several versions of Mr Siika's Imperial Galley. The only thing I didn't integrate
   was the door frame. For those who haven't seen it, this is a BIG ship. Very difficult to fit this 
   in any vanilla port city without extensive landscaping. Probably best used just sitting out in the
   bay somewhere as window dressing. Which is why I left the door frames out.

  	   
Install
=======

1.Drop the contents into your Oblivion Data Folder, or integrate into your mod files 


Credits
=======

Bethesda	   - for Oblivion and the CS
Nifskope and GIMP  - for the tools that made this possible.
LHammonds          - for the readme generator this file was based on
mr_siika	   - for the original Better Ports resources some of these are based on
Nephenee13	   - for the fixed and optimized Corvette mesh
me		   - for various fixes, textures, and the time it took to assemble all this stuff
stroti		   - for the blackout texture used on the doorframe

Licensing/Legal
===============

This is a free to use modder resource. The only requirements for use are to credit the people listed here
in both your mod description and read-me file.  
