Vorstellung Skyforge Shields

That Eorlund Graymane has been wont to apply his talents and the unique qualities of the Skyforge largely to the crafting of weapons speaks well of his Nordic appreciation for a quality offense. However, the needs of the Companions are varied, and the gifts of the Skyforge can be granted as readily to tools for blocking as those for striking. For those who would prefer to pair a fine edge on one hand with a similarly fine barrier on the other, accomodations must be made.
















Skyforge Shields is a collection of stand-alone, completely new shield assets that can be forged by the player only at the Skyforge (or, in some cases, purchased from Eorlund Graymane) .

• Both light and heavy shields are available.
• Upon joining the Companions, both light and heavy Skyforge steel shields may be purchased from Eorlund Graymane (NOTE: It may take 24-28 hours in-game for Eorlund’s sales inventory to update.)
• Additionally, all shields can be crafted by the player at the Skyforge, but only once full Skyforge crafting privileges have been granted by completion of the Companion quest “Glory of the Dead” (and the player has subsequently spoken with Eorlund).
• The player must have obtained both the smithing perk for the shield material in question and the Advanced Smithing perk (Eorlund’s work can’t be matched by neophytes).
• Once obtained, all shields can be upgraded at any workbench.
• The shields (thus far) can be made from the following materials: Steel (heavy and light), Moonstone (light), Dwemer metal (heavy), and Orichalcum (heavy and light)
• The unique nature of the Skyforge imbues the shields with roughly the resilience of one grade higher material than that from which they were made (or its equivalent). Steel heavy shields are as strong as typical Dwarven heavy shields. Steel light shields are as strong as Elven. Moonstone light shields are as strong as Elven Gilded. Dwemer metal heavy shields are as strong as Orcish. Orichalcum heavy and light shields are as strong as Ebony and Glass, respectively.
• Yes, more shields will become available! Presently, Ebony light and heavy shields as well as Dragonbone and Dragonscale shields are planned. (Maybe glass. But I’m not crazy about glass.)

I've done my best to test and tweak as much as possible, but in the end I'm a QA department of one. Should others discover additional problems, I'll do what I can to address them as I learn of them. Some general notes:

Compatibility and Conflicts:

• Neither Dawnguard nor Hearthfire are required.
• As all pieces are standalone with no dependencies whatsoever on Bethesda content, there should be no conflicts with other mods, with the possible exception of those which change Eorlund Graymane’s sales inventory (this would not, however, interfere with forging).

Installation:

• I recommend just using the Nexus Mod Manager and automated downloading.
• But if you prefer manual, simply download the .7z file to you ../skyrim/data folder, and extract all contents there. (Also, make sure it's enabled in your Skyrim launcher.)

Known Issues:

• None as of release (knock on wood…)

How They Were Made (for those who might be curious):

• Both styles of shield were first conceptualized and sketched out (appallingly poorly—it’s been too long since art school) by myself.
• High-polygon versions for both shields were modeled in ZBrush 4 as part of a self-learning project.
• Copies of the ZBrush meshes were aggressively decimated and brought into 3DS Max to serve as frameworks around which the low-poly versions used by the game were modeled and UV’d.
• Normals, ambient occlusion, cavity, and curvature maps were projected from the full-rez ZBrush models onto the low poly UV frameworks using Santiago Ortiz’s indispensable XNormal utility.
• All subsequent texture work was executed in Photoshop, utilizing imagery obtained primarily via 3DTextures.com. Only individual colors were sampled from Bethesda sources. (Bethesda's environmental cube maps are being used for reflection in-game, though.)
• Final mesh and material set-up was done in Nifskope, and in-game properties were set up using the official Creation Kit.

Screenshot lighting provided by SkyRealism - ENB Evolved

In the event that one should wish to include these shields in a more expansive mod, I\'ll likely be amenable. But please do ask permission first.

-- Dreogan, November 2012

[SIZE=+2]Other Mods by Dreogan
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