Exhausted and Sick, but You Can't Stop Ideas!!!

Alright, I give in for now. I keep trying to work on GB, but I'm sick and its making me too tired to mod. Whatever illness this is interfering with my asthma and its making me cough and draining all my energy. It got worse with the snow. Damn snow! The only snow I want is in Skyrim. }:P

But that isn't stopping ideas from hitting me.

Robes
The thing that was bothering me the most was the robes. They were going to be in leveled lists both in the supply chests for free and extras for sale at Divine Elegance. The thing is you'll get too many free ones if you visit the supply chests too often. So the solution is: 1st basic set will be given with MG key and Welcome Letter, 2nd slightly fancier set in the IC Laboratory, 3rd set in the Mage's Quarters at the Arcane U, and the 4th in the Arch-Mage's suite (either Lab or Library.) Extras for sale will go to the only Mage's Guild member who buys & sells clothing items: Ungarion at The Warlock's Luck in Bravil. Makes so much more sense!
Edit: Correction there are five sets of robes, I really am sick to forget such things. There are two that are about the same fancyness, the purple set and the blue set. They're both going in the IC Lab unless I come up with something better. Bleh!

Supply Chests
The other thing that is bugging me is the supply chests themselves. I'm worried they will provide too much stuff. I have thought of two options:
1) Completely overhaul contents.
2) Remove them from the Guild Halls. Keep only the ones in the central Lab and the Arch-Mage's Lab. If I do this one I may make minor modifications to the contents adding or removing items.
Number 2 seems to make the most sense to me as players can still abuse the multiple chests in #1, while #2 continues to provide the most useful items.

Kvatch
The odd town out. Poor Kvatch, the whole town destroyed. That means no Mage's Guild. Or does it? According to the UESP not quite! There is one survivor of the Kvatch Mage's Guild, a lady named Sigrid. How convenient for me. In the Arch-Mage's Library there are maps of every city in Cyrodiil, including Kvatch. However, when you start the game Kvatch is under seige... you know the story. On the wall in place of the Kvatch map will be a place holder until your hero breaks the siege and re-maps the city. My problem was what to do for the place holder. I've got an image of the oblivion gate in front of the city, perhaps sent to the Arcane U by fellow mages. OK, that involves a suspension of belief... until I stumbled upon Sigrid. She is the one who sends word to the AU, a picture of the gate and a note. There I've got my place holder. Your hero saves what's left of the crumbled city and the cartographers are able to provide a new map of the destroyed city. As much as I'd rather just use a map of pre-destruction Kvatch and avoid this mess altogether, there isn't one that I know of.

First Ingame Footage of Skyrim

Bethesda delivers the first ingame footage of Skyrim! And dig the remodel they've given Elderscrolls.com. All the old Elder Scrolls games are listed again in all their glory. Kudos, Bethesda! And thanks for providing me the inspiration I've been needing.

Cartography and Books

Working on the Arch-Mage's Library. We've got Meo's Series Booksets, Meo's City Maps, Garak's Booksets, Zinni's 8 Book Stacks, some booksets from Trollf's Alchemist's Cave and I'm working on a Kvatch map to match Meo's. Probably use some of Meo's Open Books too. So far I've gathered resources and placed a handful of items, this helps the ideas form. I think there are going to be some display counters and the like. Maybe a small alchemy garden in the center, like the one in DLC Wizard's Tower. Since the int/ext alchemy garden got canned it would be nice to have one somewhere.

I will take some screenshots when I get the place more in order. Only the maps on the wall and one large bookshelf look presentable, the rest is a disarray of misc furniture. I had to stop for today because a migraine is starting. Poo! And I was making good progress... :(

Bethesda Announces Creation Kit for Skyrim!

Bethesda loves modders! They have announced that they will be releasing a Creation Kit for Skyrim on the Bethesda Blog. Also check what Gstaff has to say at the BGS Forums: "Yes it does. We've always been impressed with what the community has done with our tools. Like the Elder Scrolls Construction Set for Morrowind and Oblivion, we plan to release Creation Kit so you guys can mod Skyrim."

Oh, Bethesda, how much do I love thee? And how much does my fiance dread this coming November?!

Arch-Mage's Quarters Revamp Completed

The Arch-Mage's Quarters was completed rather quickly. It was just some minor fixes, redecorating, and adding a few things. Easy-peasy! The vanilla dresser at the foot of the bed was set to respawn so I replaced it with one that doesn't. Added a few more containers. Replaced some of the decor with new stuff, including the bed. I removed the spellmaking and enchanting altars because those are included in the Laboratory. The Enchanted Chest had to stay since it is referenced by quests, scripts, and dialogue, however, it got a facelift thanks to Meo's Ayleid Clutter. The only other thing I added was a teleport that will take to you the Teleport Room (goes to all of the other rooms in the tower.) The pathgrid was slightly adjusted to accommodate the new teleporter. That's it!