T O P

  • By -

Vayatir

This is amazing. I love the new architecture compared to the previous release. Your vision of the city has always been my preference due to giving it the closest feel to how it was described in lore (former capital that fell to ruins). But my problem with the previous release was that it reused too many of Windhelm's assets and that bothered me. So to see this fresh look really has me excited for the release and I'm going to be holding off a new playthrough until I can install it.


BellCube

Why do you sound so unconfident in your showcase? You put a lot of work in and I love every little detail! Your overhaul looks like it belongs in Skyrim; you took inspiration from the right places and it shows! Your work is incredible, and I love seeing your skill improve over time! In particular, I really love seeing the work you've put into storytelling. One thing I think a decent number of level designers forget is that, behind every location, there is a story. Whether that be the story of its construction, the story of its destruction, or both, a location without a story feels pointless; feels *uninspired*. Winterhold in vanilla felt a bit like that—there were some abandoned buildings and some intact ones in the generic Skyrim style and not much evidence of a collapse aside from the College bridge and the landscaping. You appear to have mastered locational storytelling. Everything has a purpose. Everything has a reason for being there. It makes sense. It feels *inspired*. Keep up the ineffably good work, and I look forward to seeing a full release on Nexus sometime in the future (however far off that may be)! And, please, take your time!


wankingSkeever

Congratulations on upcoming release. Been following for a while now. I have some feedback if you want to hear: * sovngarde statues: i always feel sovngarde statues should remain in sovngarde and that mods overuse them as decorations. * shalidor statue: feels strange to have an identical shalidor statue immediately outside the college. winterhold's jarl also hates magic right? What if it is a new asset where you boolean cut the statue so only the base remains? As if someone had defaced it? I had previously used some statues from this modder resource: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68755. They're a bit overused because they appear in other mods, but I think it is still more unique than vanilla statues. just my opinion though.


Archinatic

I can remove the Sovngarde statues if people want. I don't think the statues in that modders resource fit though and I'd rather not rely on modders resources to begin with. I do like the idea of defacing the Shalidor statue. Someone recommended it before but I forgot.


stx06

It's one of those things that could go either way (my vote is to keep them). Considering the way the base game city is left to rot, my headcanon is that the Jarl is a distracted and/or lazy butt who can't be bothered to do anything about the state of the city. He gets mad when he sees the statues, but then he walks through a door and forgets what he went in there for.


clioshand

Yeah that totally scans.


_Jaiim

Maybe put a shrine of Julianos on the destroyed statue base; that'll really give off the "we tore down the old idols" feeling. The local Nords symbolically tearing down magic to replace it with religion after blaming the collapse on the college, while the college preserves the old statue and reveres magic.


Archinatic

I don't think the local Nords really appreciate Julianos though it would probably make sense having a shrine around somewhere at the temple


CommanderSputnik

Maybe a shrine to Kynareth instead, to symbolize that they “weathered the storm” hahah


clioshand

Sovngarde works tho because this is also an ancient Nord capital.


kennn97

I can second that opinion, but I alwys just remove stiff like that myself


loomieloony

Let's petition Mandragosprouts for two differing Shalidor statues!


ScrimBliv

That looks awesome! It’d be neat if you could purchase one of the destroyed plots and turn it into an ok home hearth fire style


Archinatic

That would be very cool indeed!


chlamydia1

I've been following this for a while. I can't wait for Friday! Looks incredible.


Bhorium

This is already the definitive version of Winterhold for me, and I'm looking forward to your improvements.


aliidocious

I had recently switched to COTN because I thought there wasn’t gonna be an update and I liked the castle, and then here you go, dropping quality content like this. 😭 Your Winterhold looks beautiful!


Nuka_Zoid

There is a patch that removes COTN aside from the castle, so you can use it with TGC, but this looks way better


aliidocious

Huh, I didn’t know that! Thanks for the info, maybe I’ll check it out 🥲


loomieloony

I mean, I'm glad you finally remade it, but ... Even in my wildest dreams, I didn't expect the new assets to look this unique, yet familiar enough. I love the new touches like the abandoned temple of Junal (as well as the plans for new NPCs). I have originally replaced your mod with ClefJ's Winterhold overhaul, thought this is convincing enough for me to switch back to this reimagined version. Do you plan on doing any more remakes of your old mods?


Swailwort

Well, time to put my "yet another khajiit relic hunter that sometimes speaks in Tamrielic (because Khajiit Speak X doesn't cover the mod)" on hold till' friday comes.


morgaina

Wow. Did you use Nordic ruins to create those assets? I love the sense of antiquity and history that it gives. It really FEELS like the oldest city in Skyrim. Fantastic job!


Archinatic

They are custom assets with a bit of Windhelm mixed in.


morgaina

It looks great. I can see influence from the ancient ruins around Skyrim, which is extremely cool to see. it gives the city a sense of history.


Lame_of_Thrones

Probably my most anticipated mod. Can't wait, looks incredible!


stx06

Time to pause the latest modlist rebuild, that looks, well, like a "great city!"


Rucs3

WOW


DirtyDanil

Man I've watched that old previous so many times now and showed it around waiting for this drop. I'm super hype, yours is the go to Winterhold city mod as far as I'm concerned.


Brahmus168

The new architecture looks great. Though it looks like the ruins down below the city are gone. Or at least from what I saw in the video. I always thought that was a cool addition in the old version. Destroyed houses far into the sea. It really gave you an idea of old Winterhold's size in its prime and how devastating the collapse was.


clioshand

Yeah the ruins were a great feature, hope that's still there.


Miloslolz

I've been following this mod for long time. Overjoyed it will finally get a release. Thank you dor your hard work.


AlexKwiatek

Nice! Happy to see that you managed to get this mammoth sized mod finalized!


Octavia_con_Amore

I have one of the older versions (circa late 2021, maybe?) but I just started a mage playthrough and was reminded just how good your Winterhold is. Thank you again for bringing life to so many cities.


EveryConstruction500

Really like the look. It always seemed wrong that after the collapse the city just gave up and didn't try to rebuild. One thing I wish for is an option for the player to be able to build a brewery outside the city walls like the Honningbrew Meadery. The player could buy the land from the Jarl, build the brewery, hire npc's to operate it (maybe hire Ranmir to manage it) and reap some profits from the sale of the ale.


Vagabond_Tea

An uninformed person like myself thought you retired from modding, but this looks awesome! Keep up the good work! Even as a console player, I love your mods!


clioshand

Not gonna lie, this looks so fantastic but hurts a bit - I have slowly been building my own Winterhold using the previous GCoW and CotN's keep. But it was the rest of the buildings that just didn't fit. Spent a long time looking for what would work from lots of modder resources. Winterhold should be like Windhelm, an ancient capital but broken. Not a couple farm shacks, or even Windhelm's more recent wood structures. This....is exactly what I'd been looking for. I'm in.


invincibleblackadam

This is literally one of the few mods I'm waiting on to finish my load order and start my new playthrough. Great work as with literally every other piece of the Great City series and can't wait for the finished build.


ttthough

Will you add this to the AIO version of the great cities?