Sweetwater Cascades (review with lots of pics!)

MornaBaine

So I will start by saying that I seldom have anything good to say about ZOS’ housing. The item and player limits are especially galling. As is the way they ignore the popular suggestion of giving separate item counts for areas of a home that require loading screens...including refusing to tell us why they think that won’t work. If they implemented it would the houses that have it be more popular? Of course they would. Would some people whine about houses that don’t have it or have only one other “instance?” Of course they would. So NOT a reason not to do it though! LOL Anyway… I digress!

Brace yourselves, because what is coming next is NOT a negative post about a house. Indeed, it is the exact opposite! For I am absolutely in LOVE with Sweetwater Cascades! It all started when I reinstalled PTS in the hope that Pantherfang Chapel would be on it so I could mess around with decorating it to see if I could make it into what I wanted it to be for I LONG for a castle home! And previewing all the big wildly expensive homes ZOS pumps out and expects top dollar for...and finding out just how impossible most of them are to decorate properly… has saved me a ton of money. Alas, currently Pantherfang is NOT on PTS, in case anyone was wondering. But I DID see a name that was not familiar to me. Sweetwater Cascades. So I went to preview it. And was utterly blown away. I can only surmise that the housing dev team has undergone some huge changes in staff. Either that or someone finally did a modicum of research on proper floorplans and use of space. The layout of the house is PERFECT! Rooms are logical! They even, so far as I can tell, actually conform to the exterior of the house!

The house has a lovely outdoor area and what's really cool is that it’s already so lovely and well done that very little is needed to dress it up. Which means you can focus your efforts on the interior decoration. But builders need not despair. Though there is a LOT of water in the outdoor space there are also some amazing cloisters surrounding the central very watery courtyard that you could do a lot with. You could even fill in the central courtyard with flooring and still not be at all short on water. And there are many lovely areas scattered around conducive to small builds. If building things is your jam, the outdoors actually has a lot of potential. You just don’t NEED to go to a lot of effort to make it look amazing. I got by with a few trees and even had enough slots left over to make a small family cemetery. Because yeah, I’m creepy like that. LOL Wait til you see the basement…

Another nice thing is that if you spring for the furnished version it’s actually worthwhile. They’ve quit putting in tons of useless (and now bound) filler like bags and crates and baskets that we can all already get for virtually nothing. There are a very few in the basement and none in the medium sized house in the same style that’s currently available. And they have mostly used the NICE Leyawin furnishings along with a smattering of the nice Elswyer furnishings as well. So that is appreciated. For this project on PTS I bought both of the Leyawin houses and stripped out the good stuff from the smaller one. That done, I had to “buy” very little else and indeed had some furnishings left over.

I’m currently at 688 slots out of 700 and I consider the place done. My hat's off to the ZOS Housing team. You finally nailed it gang. This is my dream house!

So, without further ado...the pics. Hope you enjoy them!







https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/866327782920028221/866344387855515648/unknown.png?width=1214&height=683

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/866327782920028221/866344811132092436/unknown.png?width=1214&height=683

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/866327782920028221/866361710221852672/unknown.png?width=1214&height=683







Interior starting with ground floor.



































And now moving up to the second floor that has 4 bedrooms ringing an area with a central opening to the floor below.































And on to the third floor!





















My little cemetery







The upper tower room. I forgot to get pics of the lower one!



THe basement, which I am using as a small family crypt



And also as a ..."wine room."




So ZOS, you totally hit it out of the park at last. My wallet awaits with fear and trembling!

NSatin

Did you use any of the new doors at all? Do you know if they actually fit the doorways to the rooms in the house?

carly

NSatin wrote: »

Did you use any of the new doors at all? Do you know if they actually fit the doorways to the rooms in the house?

The square leyawiin doors fit the doorways upstairs but not on the main floor of the house unless you use two of them side by side. But then you'd have a gap above as the main floor doorways are higher and rounded at the top.

MornaBaine

NSatin wrote: »

Did you use any of the new doors at all? Do you know if they actually fit the doorways to the rooms in the house?

What @carly said. The square doors for square doorways are perfect so I gave all the bedrooms doors. There is a rounded arch doorway in the basement I used the Solitude rounded top door on but it's taller than the archway. It looks fine when it's closed but looks a little goofy when open.

ZOS_Adrikoth

We're happy to hear that you are excited for Sweetwater Cascades @MornaBaine Thanks for taking the time to share your screenshots!

MornaBaine

ZOS_Adrikoth wrote: »

We're happy to hear that you are excited for Sweetwater Cascades @MornaBaine Thanks for taking the time to share your screenshots!

You're welcome! I know I'm a harsh critic but when you get it right and truly knock it out of the park you deserve the praise just as much! So thank you for this awesome home and may it be the shape of things to come!

JJOtterBear

I've been seeing a lot of people say that this house is non-furnishable due to its size, im glad to see that's an incorrect assessment. I'm seriously tempted to get this house when it releases.

maximusrex45

I have been working on the Linchal manor as my main home in the style of a working estate that would have all my crafting stations our like a small market, but I am 99% sure I will be changing to Sweetwater. I love the house has rooms that aren't weird, and seem to mesh with the exterior.

The only things that would have made it more perfect were a larger courtyard between the rear of the main house and the tower, I will spread the crafting out more under the covered archways, a stables, which I think I can mange to coble something with the new building items, and I wish the tower had a third outdoor level with a view.

I am excited to hear that the doors work. I hope some of the new building materials are popular enough to convince them to make more walls and doors/doorways that match some of the older homes.

MornaBaine

maximusrex45 wrote: »

I have been working on the Linchal manor as my main home in the style of a working estate that would have all my crafting stations our like a small market, but I am 99% sure I will be changing to Sweetwater. I love the house has rooms that aren't weird, and seem to mesh with the exterior.

The only things that would have made it more perfect were a larger courtyard between the rear of the main house and the tower, I will spread the crafting out more under the covered archways, a stables, which I think I can mange to coble something with the new building items, and I wish the tower had a third outdoor level with a view.

I am excited to hear that the doors work. I hope some of the new building materials are popular enough to convince them to make more walls and doors/doorways that match some of the older homes.

I think you could use flooring to fill in the water area of the back courtyard quite easily in order to make it an actual courtyard rather than a swimming pool. LOL I may try to do that just to see how it works out. The front water area might be more than enough!

seecodenotgames

MornaBaine wrote: »

I think you could use flooring to fill in the water area of the back courtyard quite easily in order to make it an actual courtyard rather than a swimming pool. LOL I may try to do that just to see how it works out. The front water area might be more than enough!

I did exactly that on PTS. I didn't fill the whole pool in, so it left a sort of moat around the custom structure I built in the middle.

MornaBaine

seecodenotgames wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

I think you could use flooring to fill in the water area of the back courtyard quite easily in order to make it an actual courtyard rather than a swimming pool. LOL I may try to do that just to see how it works out. The front water area might be more than enough!

I did exactly that on PTS. I didn't fill the whole pool in, so it left a sort of moat around the customer structure I built in the middle.

LOL I just now did the same thing! Albeit really quickly and sloppily!



For this I used 14 Leyawiin Platform Huge and 5 Leyawiin Platform Large

So yes, super easy to turn the courtyard into a proper courtyard and to mess around with leaving as much or as little water feature as you might want.

I also like the building you made there! I see they fixed that wall so it has a window on each side but have utterly neglected to give us a matching wall WITHOUT a window! That's a rather large oversight. *sigh*

MornaBaine

Oh no...I've also discovered how easy it is to make additional rooms off the tower. This could seriously imperial my decoration slots! LOL

Soulshine

Sorry but the level of detail that I am comfortable with is utterly impossible with the item count as it stands.

The property is lovely, and the pics posted are nice. Yes you can decorate up to the count. Have done it in too many houses now.

It all still pales in comparison to what could be done if one wasn't constantly having to compromise vision for count.

So not sure I am buying this one. Or any other house for that matter.

After years of buying houses on both NA and EU pc servers, am really fed up that they just categorically refuse to even try to address this yet continue to churn out massive sized properties.

FluffWit

Looks great Morna.

Been warning all my guildies to check this house out before they use all their crowns on Pantherfang.

bridgetrose

FluffWit wrote: »

Looks great Morna.

Been warning all my guildies to check this house out before they use all their crowns on Pantherfang.

I bought Crowns this morning, now that they went on sale, and I'm going to sit on them for Sweetwater. Patherfang doesn't really interest me at all.

TheImperfect

It looks beautiful how you decorated - agreed it is a lovely design with great views.

MornaBaine

I am really torn about Pantherfang. Objectively, it is nowhere near as good a house for the money as Sweetwater is. And having missed the chance to do a test run on it on PTS I'm very unsure I could adequately deco Pantherfang whereas I know I can do Sweetwater justice. That said, Pantherfang has a lot going for it and is an actual castle which many of us, myself included, have been pining for.

LaughingGremlin

I got pantherfang but, I can see why people want Sweatwater. It's beautiful. You enter to the courtyard not just from Blackwood but Northern Elsweyr. The fact is I have Castle fantasies. Seawater is beautiful villa but I want a defensible Castle with battlements, crenulations etc.

MornaBaine

AngryGremlin wrote: »

I got pantherfang but, I can see why people want Sweatwater. It's beautiful. You enter to the courtyard not just from Blackwood but Northern Elsweyr. The fact is I have Castle fantasies. Seawater is beautiful villa but I want a defensible Castle with battlements, crenulations etc.

Yep! So yes, I caved. But did get Pantherfang unfurnished. I'll be using a mix of Breton, Alinor and Vampiric furnishings in it. I really hate how open it is and it's galling that ZOS has not yet put out the building pieces that are available on PTS. I NEED DOORS DAMMIT! LOL But I AM loving the chapel. It's still very much a WIP but... Chapel of Dibella is a go!

LaughingGremlin

Damn! You got the Dibella statue. I feel like Salieri. I got to get that Statue.

MornaBaine

AngryGremlin wrote: »

Damn! You got the Dibella statue. I feel like Salieri. I got to get that Statue.

LOL Alas I am no Mozart. But I've had that huge statue forever and no real place to put it. At last she has a home!

Araneae6537

That looks really good, @MornaBaine — thank you for sharing! You should get a commission if I buy this house!

MornaBaine

Araneae6537 wrote: »

That looks really good, @MornaBaine — thank you for sharing! You should get a commission if I buy this house!

LOL That would be nice! Everyone who buys it, write to ZOS and say, "You owe Morna!" ROFL I'm just cranky that they are releasing it so close to releasing Pantherfang! Imma be broke and grinding for mats forever!

RevJJ

Is it confirmed that this will be a crown house or could it be a community reward for the upcoming Blackwood event? The same way the Alpine Gallery was with the Western Skyrim event…

Edit: nvm, saw it’s mentioned in the crown store showcase as limited crown only.

bridgetrose

Do we know the dates of the event? My understanding is it will be in the crown store during the event.

Adremal

Soulshine wrote: »

Sorry but the level of detail that I am comfortable with is utterly impossible with the item count as it stands.

The property is lovely, and the pics posted are nice. Yes you can decorate up to the count. Have done it in too many houses now.

It all still pales in comparison to what could be done if one wasn't constantly having to compromise vision for count.

So not sure I am buying this one. Or any other house for that matter.

After years of buying houses on both NA and EU pc servers, am really fed up that they just categorically refuse to even try to address this yet continue to churn out massive sized properties.

Wholeheartedly agree. I'm glad OP enjoys his house but to me that level of decoration wouldn't nearly cut it, some screenshots look cozy enough, mostly the living/dining areas, but others feel awfully barren and empty to me. Worse yet, there's no room for rationale in a house like that. The "wine cellar" is the worst offender in this example... three vampiric furnishings in an empty room. I might be a tad OCD, but things must have a rationale in my homes - for instance, my "wine cellar" uses some of the same furnishings, but they follow a precise rationale - bodies are grown inside the organic tower itself, tubes connect to growth tanks, tanks connect to what came out of them and to an alchemy lab, and it's not completed yet (and the blood knight is floating, I noticed ). And that's just one small room in a relatively small Notable house (the back will still most likely have to be closed off). Sorry if I derailed the thread with the screenshots, but I felt it was important to explain what I meant by "rationale" - many more experienced decorators who followed a certain rationale invariably had to close off sections of their homes.

FluffWit

bridgetrose wrote: »

Do we know the dates of the event? My understanding is it will be in the crown store during the event.

Nothing official but all the signs point to this Thursday.

bridgetrose

FluffWit wrote: »

bridgetrose wrote: »

Do we know the dates of the event? My understanding is it will be in the crown store during the event.

Nothing official but all the signs point to this Thursday.

I was really disappointed last Thursday. I got ahead of myself. I got Crowns for my birthday and I want to get some things but don't want to spend any until I see how much of a dent this house is going to be.

YouLostToAGirl

FluffWit wrote: »

bridgetrose wrote: »

Do we know the dates of the event? My understanding is it will be in the crown store during the event.

Nothing official but all the signs point to this Thursday.

Damn, Thursday? Was hoping it would be out tomorrow (Tues) been waiting all month for this house lol they're really waiting until the last minute of Sept to release it ;-;

OP's screenshots look lovely, I did take the time to go on PTS just to run around the house a bit and picture where I could put furniture. Housing would of course be far more fun if bigger houses did have a higher item count, but I understand why they don't so I'm not too fussed about it. Just looking forward to getting a bigger house as my Alinor Townhouse is extremely crowded with items at this point lmao can decorate Sweetwater until I can get my hands on Psijic Villa

bridgetrose

YouLostToAGirl wrote: »

FluffWit wrote: »

bridgetrose wrote: »

Do we know the dates of the event? My understanding is it will be in the crown store during the event.

Nothing official but all the signs point to this Thursday.

Damn, Thursday? Was hoping it would be out tomorrow (Tues) been waiting all month for this house lol they're really waiting until the last minute of Sept to release it ;-;

OP's screenshots look lovely, I did take the time to go on PTS just to run around the house a bit and picture where I could put furniture. Housing would of course be far more fun if bigger houses did have a higher item count, but I understand why they don't so I'm not too fussed about it. Just looking forward to getting a bigger house as my Alinor Townhouse is extremely crowded with items at this point lmao can decorate Sweetwater until I can get my hands on Psijic Villa

I wondered through the Psijic Villa and it has the most beautiful windows. OMG if it came up after the first of the year I might get that one as well.

MornaBaine

Adremal wrote: »

Soulshine wrote: »

Sorry but the level of detail that I am comfortable with is utterly impossible with the item count as it stands.

The property is lovely, and the pics posted are nice. Yes you can decorate up to the count. Have done it in too many houses now.

It all still pales in comparison to what could be done if one wasn't constantly having to compromise vision for count.

So not sure I am buying this one. Or any other house for that matter.

After years of buying houses on both NA and EU pc servers, am really fed up that they just categorically refuse to even try to address this yet continue to churn out massive sized properties.

Wholeheartedly agree. I'm glad OP enjoys his house but to me that level of decoration wouldn't nearly cut it, some screenshots look cozy enough, mostly the living/dining areas, but others feel awfully barren and empty to me. Worse yet, there's no room for rationale in a house like that. The "wine cellar" is the worst offender in this example... three vampiric furnishings in an empty room. I might be a tad OCD, but things must have a rationale in my homes - for instance, my "wine cellar" uses some of the same furnishings, but they follow a precise rationale - bodies are grown inside the organic tower itself, tubes connect to growth tanks, tanks connect to what came out of them and to an alchemy lab, and it's not completed yet (and the blood knight is floating, I noticed ). And that's just one small room in a relatively small Notable house (the back will still most likely have to be closed off). Sorry if I derailed the thread with the screenshots, but I felt it was important to explain what I meant by "rationale" - many more experienced decorators who followed a certain rationale invariably had to close off sections of their homes.

The OP does indeed enjoy her house... or will when I get it at any rate! LOL I did have slots left over after my PTS run through and do bear in mind that this was a relatively "quick" deco just to get a feel for what could be done within the limits. I'll obviously be making changes on the real deal. And the vamp furnishings for the "wine cellar" work much better in my Pantherfang. So the cellar in Sweetwater will likely become an actual wine cellar/alchemy workshop. [Snip] I assure you that I do and in Pantherfang they are very much part of a story that has been ongoing since the game went live. Just bear in mind that not everyone thinks just like you do nor should they. But thanks for sharing anyway. [Snip].

[Edited for bait]