Let's Give Tel Galen a Makeover!

BlackSparrow · June 2017

So, as many of us know, it looks like the much-anticipated Telvanni Tower is going to ship with an appearance that is not unlike the ending of Akira.

For many people, the answer is simply not to buy it. But, alas, my main has a backstory that involves owning a Telvanni Tower, which means I'm buying it regardless of how it actually looks, and I know I'm not the only one.

So, I'm looking for ideas on how to spruce up the exterior and hide the worst of the slime. What fungal furnishings and plants do you recommend, and where can we purchase them? How about stones? Any man-made furnishings that would work well? We have about two weeks until this will be available, but it's never too early to start a stockpile!

Help us, furnishing community. You're our only hope.

Fishoscandi · June 2017

I would make it look like a huge tree tbh... The mushrooms sticking out on the side would be the branches.

That would be kinda cool for a bosmer.

TonyRockaroni · June 2017

First, it's a shame that there's no decent way to make Telvanni Tower look less like a Telvanni Tumor.

As for what I would do? Well, I know that there are these mushroom pieces without stems in the list of furnishings you can purchase. I plan on grouping a ton of them together to create a smaller house on the outside somehow, with giant mushroom for a roof. Since there doesn't seem to be any word on a smaller house being added before its release (which SUCKS).

Since I play as an Argonian, I'd plan on having plenty of Argonian influence in my tower, which I think would also help to match that exterior considering my people are known for building mud huts. Adding a Hist Tree to the garden in the back along with a bunch of other trees, for starters.

The three rooms on the lower level are convenient for making one room dedicated to alchemy (probably the one with the "fungal cage") and another dedicated to enchanting. Not sure what to do with the third room. Probably some sort of Argonian shrine.

The upper floor would be a bedroom, but not a spectacular one. Considering the upper floor is a bigger letdown than the exterior is in my opinion. Maybe they'll change it so we get the same upper half as Tel Mora or Tel Aruhn instead of Tel Branora's upper half? Probably holding my breath for nothing, but I'm hopeful, dang it!

TonyRockaroni · June 2017

Fishoscandi wrote: »

I would make it look like a huge tree tbh... The mushrooms sticking out on the side would be the branches.

That would be kinda cool for a bosmer.

Makes sense to me. And it wouldn't require much effort, to be honest. Thee only difference I rally notice between Bosmer and Telvanni buildings is that on uses trees, the other uses mushrooms. Other than that, they're pretty much the same to me.

Streega · June 2017

I mean no disrespect, but by doing this you encourage ZOS to produce more overpriced crap. Furthermore, you waste your limited item count, why should you agree to do this? The only solution is not to buy it until they fix it. Really, even changing the texture colour (little more orange or brownish, maybe?) would improve the looks 1000%, and I'm sure it's not so difficult.
Don't fall for this "Limited Time Offer" BS.

BlackSparrow · June 2017

Thank you everyone so far!

I hopped on the PTS, and went through a bunch of mushrooms and trees, and here are the ones that are promising:

Boulders

(Left to right) Boulder, Volcanic Column; Boulder, Volcanic Plug; Boulder, Volcanic Crag

Most of Vvardenfell seems to be made of volcanic rock (as it should be!), so these three seem a likely way to hide anything at the base. The Plug, in particular is nice and flat, so might make an interesting platform.

Mushrooms

Mushroom, Funnel Cap Cluster; and Mushroom, Funnel Caps

These would both be good for helping cover (or at least refine) the overall texture of the tower. They're about the same color as the fungus currently coloring the walls, so tilt the stalks into them, and you have something that is less "failed flesh atronach" and more fungal.

Mushroom, Netch Shield Platform

This one is enormous! Anyone looking to build separate pods should consider this one as either floor or roof!

Mushroom, Netch Shield Tower

Similar to the previous, but taller and with a smaller cap.

(Left to right) Mushrooms, Netch Hide Shade; Mushroom, Poison Pax Shelf; and Mushroom, Poison Pax Stool

These might be good for using as organic ramps, in case anyone intends to make their tower climbable.

Giant Trees
These are the trees that have good texture and not so many leaves that you couldn't hide them with a little creativity:

Tree, Ancient Banyan

Look at that wonderful twist on the trunk!

Tree, Giant Cyprus

This one was so big, I had to get on the roof to see most of it!

Tree, Leaning Swamp

Tree, Old Juniper

It's relatively small, but the trunk has great texture!

Tree, Towering Cyprus

A baby version of the GIant Cyprus... good if you're trying to match textures. The leaves might get in the way, though.

Tree, Towering Palm Cluster

Mostly included for the trunks

Tree, Towering Swamp Palm

Tree, Towering Wax Palm

Tree, Twisted Banyan

This one is by far my favorite of the trees. I even inverted it to show how the roots could be used to cradle something, like a pod! The one tricky thing is the leaves would come up... you can either hide them with other pieces or just say they're stalks of grass.

That's what I could find in the in-game Crown store, so if anyone has stumbled across any other good additions for sale in the world, please let us know!

Streega wrote: »

I mean no disrespect, but by doing this... [SNIP]

"No disrespect," but I explained why I'm doing this in my first post. and there are a dozen other threads already discussing whether or not people should buy it. This one is about how those of us who are buying it can "fix" it, cosmetically.

TonyRockaroni · June 2017

BlackSparrow wrote: »

Tree, Twisted Banyan

This one is by far my favorite of the trees. I even inverted it to show how the roots could be used to cradle something, like a pod! The one tricky thing is the leaves would come up... you can either hide them with other pieces or just say they're stalks of grass.

Holy crap! THAT is clever! I never would've thought to flip one of the trees upside-down. Welp! There's the roots I've been looking for! XD

Also, "Poison Pax, Shelf"! Those are the mushroom pieces I was talking about for making a smaller Telvanni house. Just forgot the name. So thank you!

BlackSparrow · June 2017

So, I just spent a ridiculous amount of time placing mushrooms!

My personal concern is how ugly the exterior is, so, after buying the tower, I loaded up on Funnel Caps and Netch Shields and got to work.

Prep work

The first order of business was to figure out what the limits of the exterior are.

The good news is that the skybox reaches above the topmost mushroom, so you have the full bounds of the tower to play with. (Though only just.)

This is me bumping my head on the ceiling of the skybox, just above the topmost mushroom.

I also bounded out what the width of the building space is at the top.

Generally, the top of the box stays pretty tight to the tower, though you have a little more space over the dock. You might be able to do a diving board there, though I didn't test it.

Here are the bounds of the top of the skybox:

A couple other things I noticed: The tower itself is a little finicky. There are spots where invisible walls reach outside the tower itself, so the entire exterior of the tower is not necessarily usable flush to the wall. Here I am walking up against a part of the invisible wall outside the tower:

It's also important to note that much of the upper part of the tower is lacking collision, including some of the mushrooms:

Along those lines, make sure you take off your armor if you're building anything this high. I died 4 times falling from the scaffolding.

Mushroom Time!

Cue three hours of doing this:

The Funnel Cap Cluster worked really well to create the "branching" effect that the original Tels had.

In particular, this little structure comes in handy:

It's made from a Funnel Cap, a Funnel Cap Cluster, and a Netch Shield Platform. Each is 50 Crowns or 15,000-25,000 gold apiece. I opted for the Crown store, since I had some Crowns left over after buying the Tel. It's also worth mentioning that the unfurnished tower comes with one of each of the giant mushrooms (those three and the Netch Shield Tower), so you won't need to pay anything past the tower's purchase price to make one of these.

Platforms

Personally, i wanted some deck space. I loved the views, especially toward the north, where you can see Sadrith Mora:

I decided to make a few platforms and a plank box in the sky.

It's a longterm goal, so I'm not to worried about making it pretty right now.

Result

As a reminder, this is what it looked like originally:

And here's how it looked once I was done placing mushrooms and getting the structure of the decking up:

I used ~100 worth of item space.

Final verdict? It's not unsalvageable. Adding the mushroom stacks as new "branches" helps a lot to even out the impact of the tower's texture. I don't think I'm done messing with it, but this is definitely much closer to what I was expecting in a Telvanni Tower.

Your Turn!

I'm wondering if anyone else has a taken a shot at this, either the exterior or interiors. If so, please let us see what you've done! It's no fun if it's just me.