PoasterToaster's Showcases

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PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
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1 year 11 months ago

Greetings everyone. Here is my showcase for the Book of Worms.

Quest Details

  • NPCs in the hamlets around Tel Rivus will make reference to Nira Uldram's pursuits in latest rumors to Telvanni players.
  • A copy of Mysteries of the Worm has been placed in the vaults in the Telvanni Council House in Port Telvannis. Nira directs the player to this copy.
  • Jobasha alludes to the location of another copy in Necrom and to the great danger of pursuing it.
  • Returning the book as promised rewards the player with gold and a custom amulet of summoning greater bonewalkers.
  • If, however, the player wishes to remain true to the teachings of the temple instead, they can take the book to any member of the temple of Master rank or higher. They will reward the player with a custom amulet of cure common and blight disease.

I look forward to your feedback and improving the quest as much as I can!

AttachmentSizeDate
Binary Data book_of_worms.ESP13.56 KB2022-09-13 07:01
Dev Shah's picture
Dev Shah
Interior DeveloperQuest Reviewer
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2020-07-12 13:22
Last seen:
8 months 3 weeks ago

Welcome to TR! The quest is fully functional and works pretty well! There are some issues, though, which I've posted below. Feel free to ask if you have any issues!

General Notes
-You need to include at least 1 script with enabling/disabling, or a timer or something else beyond the basic npc script. I agree that a script isn't needed for this quest, but you need to make one just for the showcase, and if it fits the quest, even better!

-You also need to add a couple of npcs. Again, not really needed here, but a requirement for the showcase. For this, you can just add a couple of npcs near the vaults that make sense there, and then we can delete them for the claim. (Full list https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/guidelines-quester-showcases. No need to add journal stages, as it's apparent that you can handle them.)

-You have some dirty records in the esp. (Two cells and one dialogue in greeting 5)

-A good practice is to put new dialogue in topics like chores at the near the dialogue of the same map/area to avoid cluttering. Also, since the latest rumors entry is at the end, it'll basically never occur(as the generic ones are above this, they'll take priority)

-Generic dialogue should have a NotLocal NoLore and NotLocal T_Local_NoLocre filter (Check latest rumors dialogue for examples)(So that quest specific npcs don't have dialogue they shouldn't)

Dialogue
-Topic latest rumors "...Some rough looking folk been heading that...", "been heading" should be "have been heading"

-Topic mysteries of the worm "...I urge you to reconsider your duties to your house and return to me in the future..." I don't think, with the characterisation you've given to Nira, that she'd care about duties to the house. It'd make more sense if she was angry about her research getting more delayed, for example.

-Topic mysteries of the worm "You have a copy?..." 'choice "Give the book." 1 "Keep the book" 2', should have a full stop after book. Also, actions are enclosed by [Action here.]. Alternatively you can also make the player say something that'll imply the action.

-The dialgue you get when you give the book to the temple is a bit too mild for her personality(imo), and too vague.

-Topic mysteries of the worm "Then I am afraid I must relieve the book from your possession.", in the results, setpccrimelevel should be modpccrime level. (Set just changes is to 5000, mod adds 5000 more to the crime level)

-Journal index 110 "I have brought a copy of Mysteries of the Worm to a master of the temple...", 'I have brought' is a little awkward in this case. 'surrendered' or 'gave up' make more sense.

You don't need to fix these, just for reference
-Dialogue flows better if it is a bit more condensed. For example
"This book is banned from normal circulation. Only the highest ranking members of the temple here in Necrom use it, and only on very rare occasions. If you find a copy, you would be wise to turn it in, else the Ordinators may hunt you down." could be written as "This book is only for the use of the highest ranking members of the temple, and that too on very rare occasions. If you were to find a copy, you'd be wise to turn it in." This condenses it and also implies the punishment for using the book rather than telling it, which I think works better here.
    Also in this case you can use notclass ordinator/ordinator guard instead of the NotID

-The generic dialogue for Booksellers seems a bit too specific for it to work on everyone. Also maybe it'd be better if they pointed you towards jobasha.

-You said that NPCs in hamlets around Tel Rivus will have latest rumors in reference to this, but it's just Bal Oyra that's there. Is this intended or an oversight?

 

Take care!!

PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
Joined:
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Last seen:
1 year 11 months ago

Thank you for the feedback! I have made the following changes per your recommendations:

-The dialgue you get when you give the book to the temple is a bit too mild for her personality(imo), and too vague.

She now calls you a traitorous s'wit and mentions you are no longer welcome in her tower.

-You need to include at least 1 script with enabling/disabling, or a timer or something else beyond the basic npc script. I agree that a script isn't needed for this quest, but you need to make one just for the showcase, and if it fits the quest, even better!

After leaving the conversation when she refuses to speak to you further, she will now kick you out of her tower via script. Another script has been added to accomodate a new NPC added, detailed below.

since the latest rumors entry is at the end, it'll basically never occur(as the generic ones are above this, they'll take priority)

-You said that NPCs in hamlets around Tel Rivus will have latest rumors in reference to this, but it's just Bal Oyra that's there. Is this intended or an oversight?

It would seem this was not the correct version of my esp file. The latest rumors should function as intended, and also be present for Bahrammu. I also added rumors for Nivalis which were not present in a previous version.

All recommendations for dialogue changes have been added.

-You also need to add a couple of npcs. Again, not really needed here, but a requirement for the showcase. For this, you can just add a couple of npcs near the vaults that make sense there, and then we can delete them for the claim. (Full list https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/guidelines-quester-showcases. No need to add journal stages, as it's apparent that you can handle them.)

Two named Telvanni guards have been added to the vault. One is standing near the entrance and serves no practical purpose. Theldyn Veralas guards the door to the vault to complicate reaching it. He can be convinced with a high disposition to give the vault door key (which has also been added) to the player, but he will ask for it back as the players leaves through a forced conversation.

I was told to leave a merge note that the original door to access the vault should be removed. In addition to giving it access with a key, it has been given an owner to make it illegal to force open. For testing, I used the console to disable the original door.

AttachmentSizeDate
Binary Data book_of_worms.ESP20.81 KB2022-09-15 19:37
Dev Shah's picture
Dev Shah
Interior DeveloperQuest Reviewer
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Last seen:
8 months 3 weeks ago

Very good work in fixing some of the work, but unfortunately the review was cut short by a bug.
 

-Latest rumors still need to be with similar ones (Below BEGIN TR MAP1: BAL OYRA RUMORS for Bal Oyra, for example. Not every topic has placeholders, but you should still strive for putting topics near similar ones in the area.)

-T_ScNpc_Mw_Nira_KickOut isn't the correct convention for this. T_ is for stuff added by Tamriel Data. You should use TR_m1_Scriptname or TR_m1_q_scrname. For an npc script TR_m1_npcname_sc is generally preferred.

-You somehow removed the ID filters for all of Nira's dialogue, so everyone says it now. Can't test much of what I want to because of this.

-Vault might be too common a topic for dialogue. No need to fix this, as this feels like too easy of an option, specially considering that being a tevanni and doing quests will come with a disposition boost. Check (Creating a unique topic) part in https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/guidelines-quests-and-dialogue for more info. (The rest is a bit outdated, but this part is still useful)

In this script:
if ( doOnce == 1 )
    Set timer to ( timer + GetSecondsPassed )
    if ( timer > 10 )
        if ( GetDistance Player < 200 )
            set doOnce to -1
            ForceGreeting
        endif
    endif
    Return
endif
The bottom return isn't needed as it is already end of the script.

Take care!!

PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
Joined:
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Last seen:
1 year 11 months ago

Alright, I have decided to shelve the Book of Worms for now and attempted a different claim, Shorted a Kwama. The quest calls for something to be delivered from one merchant to another focused in Menaan and Andothren. Instead of Kwama eggs or guar hide like the description suggests, I decided to focus on the plantation economy of the area and added two NPCs that are looking to have an order of greef delivered to the Cat-Catchers' Cornerclub in Andothren.

The NPCs added are Lechlaud Rorielle, a Breton who travels every two days between Menaan and the Vathras Plantation, and his trusted pack guar, Baumi.

Quest Details

  • The player will find Lechlaud either outside the gates of Menaan, at the entrance to the Vathras plantation, or on the road in between. No matter where he is found, he asks if the player is heading to Andothren and is willing to make a delivery there.
  • He gives the player five bottles of greef and an order form that shows his mistake: it actually calls for ten bottles of greef to be delievered.
  • Llaynu Maanil at the Cat-Catchers' Cornerclub accepts the delivery, but will ask the player to collect the missing bottles to finish the order (alternatively, the player noticed the mistake and collected the remaining bottles on their own and Llaynu is none the wiser)
  • The player can confront Lechlaud and he will give the player two bottles of greef to try to help them complete the order. With a high enough disposition, he will give the player another delivery that has the remaining bottles of greef as its promised reward. Atran Oran at the Oran Plantation has ordered some slave bracers.
  • However the player decides to procure the missing bottles, returning to Llaynu has her give the player the remainder of the promised gold.
  • Rumors in Andothren suggests that Lechlaud is afraid to go to back because he has messed up other orders there.

Lechlaud's dialogue after the quest is complete suggests he needs help with his route and is looking to hire. A quest could involve another NPC who needs work being connected with Lechlaud to finish his deliveries.

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Denis418's picture
Denis418
ModeratorSenior DeveloperExterior DeveloperInterior ReviewerQuest Developer
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Hello PoasterToaster! I'm a regular tester and I was curious to play your Greef Delivery quest. TL;DR: well done! Here are some points of advice:

Vanilla, Breton 31:

  • I think, you should remove greef items from both the questgiver's and Llaynu's inventory. The last one has 13 bottles on her when you bring her the initial delivery. And while it's totally okay story-wise, it allows the player to buy the missing 5 bottles of greef from her and immediately give them to her for quest reward. Though, it's still on the edge of a totally fine scenario. And the quesgiver has 2 bottles of greef in his stock as well, which makes the travel to Oran's a bit less important story-wise.
  • To make things consistent, I think, the delivery of the slaves bracers should also be accompanied by a transaction paper. The NPCs don't necessarily need to take it off you, it's just a recipe (they don't take it currently).
  • I think, the questgiver, when you come back to him, should urge you a bit more aparently to fix the incomplete delivery. Because his reputation is at stake. Current dialogue feels like he thinks, it's your problem now. Just add a line about how it is important for him and a promise of reward.
  • I feel like Atran Oran stands too high to receive the bracers personally. Such triffling matters should be done by his servants. I suggest directing the player to Mutra Llehervu, the head of the houshold stuff. I would suggest to direct the delivery to Dels Ravyn, the foreman who deals with slaves, but he can be killed by a player in another questline. And him giving you greef doesn't make much sense. I think making Mutra the receiver of the bracers and the giver of greef is optimal. And she could mention that she'll take the bracers to Dels later.

General feedback: This is a good quest. I like how the questgiver and his guar move between different locations. The tie-in with Oran plantation is nice, because it's good to connect new areas with the lands of the previous release. Overall, this quest allows you to roleplay as a merchant, which is an important theme of the Dominions of Dust release. A proper reviewer will give you feedback on technical nuances. Good work!

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment. 
The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
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2016-04-03 18:00
Last seen:
1 year 11 months ago

Thank you for the feedback! I will wait for a full review before I upload the next version, but I have made the following changes based on your feedback.

I think, you should remove greef items from both the questgiver's and Llaynu's inventory. 

Rorielle had a levelled list determining what drinks he carried. Now he restocks all local drinks except greef to avoid this issue. I further decided to move the target of the delivery to Jada at the Dancing Cup as Llaynu owns a large number of barrels housing levelled drinks as well as a few bottles of greef lying around the cornerclub. To change all of them would be quite extensive. By contrast, Jada owns a single barrel of drinks that can hold greef, but will never hold the five needed for the quest. She also has no bottles of greef lying around the Dancing Cup. This ensures no interior changes are required to make buying the necessary drinks directly from the quest target an unrealistic option. You can buy a few bottles, but you'll still need to find more elsewhere. I believe this sufficiently discourages players from dipping into their future reward to complete the quest.

To make things consistent, I think, the delivery of the slaves bracers should also be accompanied by a transaction paper.

I think, the questgiver, when you come back to him, should urge you a bit more aparently to fix the incomplete delivery. Because his reputation is at stake. 

The player is likely second guessing Rorielle's organization by this point so another order form confirming he has it right has been added. I also changed the quest very slightly so now he always offers the delivery to the Oran Plantation, rather than only if you confront him with high disposition. He now only pays you as an apology for the mixup with high disposition instead. This change accompanies dialogue changes to make Rorielle more concerned the status of the delivery could affect his business dealings in Andothren.

 I feel like Atran Oran stands too high to receive the bracers personally. Such triffling matters should be done by his servants. I suggest directing the player to Mutra Llehervu, the head of the houshold stuff. I would suggest to direct the delivery to Dels Ravyn, the foreman who deals with slaves, but he can be killed by a player in another questline.

I agree and like the suggestion. The section at Oran Plantation now directs you to Mutra. She still believes Rorielle is a fool like Atran did before.

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PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
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1 year 11 months ago

Alright, here is a revised version of the Book of Worms that should have previous bugs ironed out. Changes to the vault in Port Telvannis now consist only of the added book. This is because the Shorted a Kwama quest I think serves as a more complete showcase and I felt the vault guard added unnecessary complications. Nira's script to remove the player from the tower is still present. I also added faction reputation changes to the quest result which were not present in previous versions.

I had difficulties with getting the latest rumors to work as part of the plugin and could only get it to function as part of a separate plugin. I am still not quite able to explain that, but I have included the separate plugin with the rumors. Rumors in the Shorted quest function perfectly, so I am at somewhat of a loss as to why this happened.

One note is nearly everything inside the vault is not actually owned a member of by House Telvanni, so the only thing that will get you expelled for taking in there is the book which feels odd, but I felt it was outside the scope of the quest to address all that, just an odd inconsistency I noticed.

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Binary Data book_of_worms_rev2.ESP14.21 KB2022-09-23 18:47
Binary Data book_of_worms_rumors.ESP2.03 KB2022-09-23 17:10
PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
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1 year 11 months ago

Hello, I have made another quest that I believe is a good showcase of my abilities. This time it is a follow up quest of my own design for Nira Uldram after completing the Book of Worms quest for her. As such, it will be necessary to load both together for it to work properly in its current form. You will need to first complete the Book of Worms quest for Nira before she offers the following quest.

Quest Details

  • Nira did not learn what she was searching for from Mysteries of the Worm and now is hoping the player can act as an intermediary for a new source of knowledge: the Lliryn Ancestral Tomb is now the lair of the lich Tenrini Sadas and she wants you to go to her and bring back what knowledge she has. She gives a grand soul gem to the player to give to the lich to convince her to speak with you.
  • The player is given directions to the tomb from Nira. It is south of Bal Oyra a short ways.
    • The tomb has been changed slightly to accomodate the quest. Before it was filled with very low level skeletons and bonewalkers. Now they should scale with level for appropriate difficulty, but still be a fairly small and easy dungeon to clear.
    • The final room has the most changes. The two unique gloves are still present, but instead of resting atop a chest, they have been left as an offering atop an Altar to Namira which accepts grand soul gems in exchange for a blessing (50pts fortify magicka and 1pt restore magicka for 15 mins) The chests that were in the room before have been moved and the leveled creatures in the room have been removed. Tenrini Sadas has been placed in this room and red lights have been added to add to the evil atmosphere.
    • As a result, there are some merge changes needed to make the dungeon work appropriately. The levelled creatures have been (for the most part) all replaced, and the chests and unique gloves in the final chamber should be removed to accomodate the new layout of the room. 
  • After giving the lich a grand soul gem as a peace offering, she will offer her knowledge in exchange for a favor of her own: she has a black soul gem she wants filled with the soul of a powerful warrior. She does not know of any and says it's up to you to find one. She suggest talking to Nira to find one.
  • Nira uses this as an opportunity herself. Nivalis is the only settlement on Althoa island she does not control and believes the commander of Icebreaker Keep, Tibera Rone, can be taken out while fulfilling the request for the lich. She directs you to Tibera to fill the soul gem.
    • I am aware Tibera Rone is included as part of the Firewatch Imperial Legion questline. This is intended to serve as a moral conundrum and will possibly stop imperial legion players from progressing the quest without finding another way.
  • Moral players will likely be appalled at the notion of killing the commander of a legion fort and seek another way. If they talk to Tibera Rone about the sacrifice the lich wants, she is disgusted that Nira is attempting to extend her reach to Nivalis, but without written proof they cannot do much about it. She instead suggests you take out Nira's head retainer to fulfill the quest as she notes he is a dishonorable warrior. This NPC is Vorar Drothas who is added to the lower level of Andaryon in the bedroom area.
  • Whoever they decide to progress the quest with, they will need to trap their soul like they would any creature. This functionality only works on the two NPCs the quest directs you to and is performed via script. If the NPC in question dies while they are under the effect of a soul trap spell while the quest is ongoing and the unfilled black soul gem is in the player's inventory, it is replaced with a "filled" soul gem bearing their soul and the relevant message box and sound effect are played to replicate the soul trap effect. A journal entry notes the player's success.
    • While neither NPC will refuse to talk to the player during this quest like Morag Tong quests do, they will still need to goad the NPC into attacking the player to avoid a bounty. I accomplished this during testing with frenzy spells.
  • After the player successfully "fills" the black soul gem, they are to return to Tenrini who will thank them with a copy of the book Necromancer's Moon, which is identical to the version in Oblivion save that it is written in Daedric script.
  • This is the knowledge that Nira seeks. Returning to her with the book in hand completes the quest. I believe a follow up quest to destroy Tenrini Sadas would be a good idea, as she is now a loose end in Nira's eyes.
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Mortimer's picture
Mortimer
Senior DeveloperQuest Reviewer
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1 week 2 days ago

Hello! I'll be reviewing Shorted a Kwama for your showcase.

This looks pretty good so far! Just a few things that need changing.

1. The travel script breaks very easily, simply wait two days and start his walking, then wait an hour. He will be forever stuck in that position (vanilla engine). What I suggest you change this to is a much simpler cellchanged / time script that has him teleport between three locations: menaan, the plantation, and that little road in between, somewhere in the center. AIPackageDone is unreliable at best.

2. The first journal entry should tell you where to find Lechlaud (and that he travels between two points). Players returning to this quest after hours of gameplay should be able to tell where to find this guy if they got sidetracked.

3. delivery to the Dancing cup jada response (and everywhere else, like the delivery of bracers response) use -- instead of - for emdashses, tes3 style formatting always has two.

4.  delivery to the Dancing cup first Lechlaud response on returning from jada, no spaces between the end of the word... and the ellipses.

5. you need to manually addtopic "delivery of bracers" in the results box (and addtopic the first time you encounter a new topic). I did not get this response until i manually added it in game.

6. him saying Oran Plantation is only a short distance is a lie lol

7. remove the "haha!" bit from the bracers response

8. Does the trader normally get paid in wine? I guess its kind of a weird barter economy. They don't make that wine there so maybe you can think of a response for why that would be. It seems a bit convoluted but I'm sure you can just add a line for why he does this lol

PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
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2016-04-03 18:00
Last seen:
1 year 11 months ago

Thank you for the feedback! Here is an updated version with the requested changes. The new travel script uses a positioncell command using cellchanged or getpcsleep to move both Baumi and Lechlaud. Unfortunately it seems triggering his movement when waiting instead of resting, such as in Menaan where it is illegal to rest outside, is not possible without MGE XE so I felt this was sufficient, if not as perfect as I would like.

The only change I was not able to implement is point 4 since the only included ellipsis in the quest does seem to have the proper spacing. Please let me know if you are still seeing a lack of spacing there.

For point 8, I felt a high ranking member of House Hlaalu, especially one as clearly well off as Atran, would have imperial wines available to him. Llehervu now makes it clear she has been bartering with Rorielle from Atran's private wine stock and is no longer doing that going forward.

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Mortimer's picture
Mortimer
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1 week 2 days ago

Great work! I think the implementation is about as good as you can get with the vanilla engine. The only minor stylistic thing is the changed line to " -- pun intended --" would work better with commas instead of double emdashes.

 

Recommended for promotion, I'll get around to the final edit and merge soon

PoasterToaster's picture
PoasterToaster
Quest Developer
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1 year 11 months ago

Hello, I am less confident in my abilites using the CS for creating environments, but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I saw there were several homes in Narsis that needed developing and thought I'd take a stab at one that I felt had some character: St Veloth's Quarter #63 Apartments. I especially thought that two Cammona Tong thugs living in the same building was an interesting idea so I decided that I would use the odd shape of ex_hlaalu_b_26 to my advantage. In this interior, both apartments are 3x2x1, but attach to a secret side room that connects both floors together and houses the pair's illicit workspace. The doors into the secret room are blocked by tapestries to hide it.

I designed it with the idea that it would eventually be split into three cells: the two separate apartments and the secret room. It is for this reason that the doors to the secret room clip very egregiously. In the final version in my mind, they will be teleport doors and thus won't move. I also thought that this would allow for the odd shape of ex_hlaalu_b_26 to be realized. The north marker of the secret room can be adjusted slightly to give it the curve that is not possible using the square room shapes available to us.

The top floor was designed to be occupied by a woman due to the dresser container holding female clothing while the ground floor was designed to be occupied by a male for the same reason. These can be easily changed by swapping out the clothing containers. I tried to bake in some interesting things about these characters into the design of the interior by giving them hobbies beyond just thugging. The occupant of the ground floor is a reader and musician while the occupant of the top floor is a fisher. Both are also skooma addicts and the ground floor occupant has a copy of Confessions of a Skooma Eater, to imply they are working on kicking the habit. The bottom floor occupant prefers axes while the top floor occupant prefers short blades as evidenced by the weapons they hide beneath their pillows.

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Vern's picture
Vern
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