Texafornian's Showcase

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Rakanishu's picture
Rakanishu
Quest Developer
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2016-09-15 23:12
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1 month 2 weeks ago

Edit: Forgot to add a script to the doors.
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Here’s my submission for Questing + Scripting.

Go to the center of Seyda Neen to find a mysterious potion.  Drinking it will send you to a location that looks strangely similar to the plaza in the St. Olms canton, but devoid of everything except for a Dremora and a number of chests.  Talk to the Dremora to learn more about his game…

Note: I used “MenuTest 0” to close the inventory screen immediately after the player drinks the potion; this can sometimes cause a crash.  If it weren’t a consumable object then I’d use a less crash-prone command.

CS Info:
Interior cell added: “TexShowcase”
New items/scripts are prefaced with aTex_
Requires Tribunal for a certain script command

AttachmentSizeDate
Binary Data TexafornianShowcase.ESP27.3 KB2017-01-19 10:32
Kevaar's picture
Kevaar
Developer EmeritusQuest Developer
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1 month 3 days ago

Overall, pretty good, most of my critiques are nitpicks, with the exception of two:

--There’s a journal entry that says what the key does. This comes after you find the skull. Though I knew what the key was supposed to do since we had just got done talking about it for that other quest design, it might not be be obvious enough for the random player. Consider having this journal entry come earlier, or having the note be a little more explicit (while not breaking the fourth wall).

--Once getting out of the puzzle dungeon, I ended up in a cell with a 50 locked door. I lol-ed hard, but, as my character was a level 1 test guy, I had no way to get out of this, which would’ve broken the game. I would suggest hiding a scroll of Divine Intervention somewhere, or have a guard just outside greet the player and give them the way out.

General critique on other things:
--Cleaned file: yes
--spell out “and” in “hide & seek”
--the journal is blandly written, so it could conceivably be written by any character: good
--Worn chest should probably be capitalized to Worn Chest
--I like how the doors are all blocked off and say so if you try to poke at them.
--key floating script works as intended, though sometimes it shifts out of my immediate line of sight. Because the key is small and dully colored, it can be hard to find again. Consider using a brighter object or if possible, put a levitate spell effect under the key.
--the flash and zone-in once you turn in the quest was too fast and unexpected. I would put this behind a “Continue” rather than have it trigger directly on turn-in.
--You hear Rakanishu yell out “Wrong chest!” → Needs a comma after “out”.
--Minor: Instead of “you hear”, just have “Rakanishu yells out...”. What if the player is roleplaying as a deaf character?

Rakanishu's picture
Rakanishu
Quest Developer
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Thanks for the critique! I’ll re-upload after I make the changes.

Journal: I wanted to make the discovery difficult (and thus rewarding) for the player, but I agree that the note needs another hint.

Locked door: The scroll is a good idea.

Spell effect: Excellent suggestion as I was also having difficulty seeing it at times.

Rot's picture
Rot
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2014-03-16 17:45
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1 year 11 months ago

Here’s another look on the first version:
 

Note: I used “MenuTest 0” to close the inventory screen immediately after the player drinks the potion; this can sometimes cause a crash.  If it weren’t a consumable object then I’d use a less crash-prone command.

I had that crash – I’m not sure it’s linked to MenuTest, though: in the potion script you have a Player->RemoveItem, "aTex_DrinkMe", 1 : it’s dangerous to remove an item from the inventory within its own script! Good practice is to Startscript another global one on the player (this other script removes the item safely, and here can MenuTest too, before terminating itself)
 

Spell effect:

You can’t have spell effects active on items in the same sense as on NPCs, like a Levitate right under it – but for a little lightshow you can make the key Cast something on itself or the player, or ExplodeSpell works too (see what works – an On Target spell like “light” creates a nice but sadly glitchy halo around it; but Touch spells seem safe)

- and finally a small issue: if you pick the key before talking to the Dremora, you get locked out of the initiating dialogue and can never get the “enchanted skull” topic. Always makes things more complicated than they need to be… but I think here just preventing the key from giving its journal entry if the quest hasn’t been started is enough.

Rakanishu's picture
Rakanishu
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1 month 2 weeks ago

Here’s v2 with all of the changes suggested by Kevaar and Rot added in.  I’ve also added an extra failure state with a corresponding journal entry in the event you kill Rakanishu: teleporting is disabled within the cell so you’ll be stuck there forever. Finally, the key can be used to escape if you succeed (in lieu of an Intervention scroll).

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Binary Data TexafornianShowcase_v2.esp30.39 KB2017-01-20 02:08
Rot's picture
Rot
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1 year 11 months ago

Almost slipped!
All good to me,
(for the obligatory nitpicking, on the journal: we tend not to write explicitly that the player should do something; and in the case where they complete it without speaking to the Dremora first, how would they know it’s an “enchanted” skull? :p)
but those being irrelevant details, you have this recommendation for promotion
 

Rakanishu's picture
Rakanishu
Quest Developer
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1 month 2 weeks ago

Good points.  I’ll be sure to file away that bit about the journal entry for future reference.

Kevaar's picture
Kevaar
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2016-01-19 19:35
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1 month 3 days ago

Woops, so much to do, so little brain space.

Welcome to quest deving! Congratulations on your promotion!

Rakanishu's picture
Rakanishu
Quest Developer
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2016-09-15 23:12
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1 month 2 weeks ago

Thanks! Looking forward to contributing to TR.

Atrayonis's picture
Atrayonis
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2 years 7 months ago

Congratulations! Glad to have you on board.