Stryker's Showcase

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:59 pm

After a little bit of testing I've tried out my "skills" at the CS... This interior is easily accessible by going down through the Hlaalu Canalworks in Vivec (Odd spot, but was one of the first that came to mind.)
It should be all cleaned and hopefully pretty good.
I won't be on much today or tomorrow, so hopefully I won't have too much to fix when I do get back on.

Chin Music · Post by **Chin Music** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:31 pm

This .esp is dirty. The stats of various items have been altered undesirably. Go to "Data Files" under "File" in the construction set and click "Details" with your plugin highlighted. Everything in the ID column which is not TES3, CELL or REFR represents an object which has been altered and needs to be cleaned.

- You have used Hlaalu architecture in an interior in Vivec. It should use Velothi.
- The ramp is not gridsnapped to the bottom floor properly.
- There seems to be a small gap in the top floor where the room has not been gridsnapped properly. (it is between the imperial shelf and the tribunal tapestry)
- One of the posts and railings on the bottom floor is not aligned to the wall properly
- A few tapestries on the bottom floor are rotated the wrong way.
- You have mixed poor and rich Dunmer furniture as well as a few Imperial (com) pieces. Furniture needs to be consistent unless there is a good reason for it not to be.
- Interior uses default sunlight settings and is not set to Illegal to Sleep. Most interiors use dimmed sunlight settings. Use similar interiors as a reference.
- Several objects are floating or bleeding into others, including:
The candlestick on the table downstairs bleeding into the table
The table itself is floating
The potted plant downstairs is floating
Lives of the Saints on the bottom floor bookshelf is floating
Cushion on bottom floor is bleeding into the floor
Tapestry behind the crate on the bottom floor is bleeding into the crate
barrel_01_empty on bottom floor is floating
Same bookshelf is floating (and so by extension, so is everything on it)
Table on the top floor with alchemy apparatus on it bleeds into the rug and floor
Chair next to said table has a corner floating off the rug.
Bookshelf on the top floor is floating
Everything on said bookshelf is bleeding into the bookshelf
Both chests, the barrel and the wardrobe on the top floor are floating.
Bed is bleeding into the floor

There may be more.

Some other minor things:
- Interior is very large, and doesn't have much clutter or furniture to fill it.
- All the containers are empty. You might replace some of them with generic food/money/whatever containers.
- The colours of the tapestries and rugs seem fairly inconsistent and don't seem to follow any pattern.
- Used two different kinds of poor chair at the bottom floor table.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:02 pm

Review:

1. Plugin is not clean. Clean out everything you didn't modify. For example, you have used several books, but haven't modified any of them. The information for the placement of your items is stored in the cell data, which you should not clean. If you do not create any new items, the only thing this plugin should have is the TES3 entry and the two cell entries.

2. Default lighting settings used - should be changed to something more appropriate

3. Floating items:
- barrel_01_empty
- bk_LivesOfTheSaints
- bk_DoorsOfTheSpirit
- Furn_De_R_Bookshelf_02 (eastern corner of lower room)
- Furn_de_rug_big_02 (both lower and upper rooms)
- furn_pottedplant
- furn_de_p_chair_01
- furn_de_p_chair_02
- furn_de_p_table_02 (lower room)
- crate_01
- furn_de_rug_big_04
- ingred_crab_meat_01
- de_r_chest_01 (both)
- de_r_closet_01_empty
- ingred_marshmerrow_01 (all)
- ingred_saltrice_01
- barrel_01_Ingredients
- ingred_hound_meat_01

4. Bleeding items:
- ingred_ash_yam_01 (eastern-most one)

5. Items resting a strange angles:
- ingred_bittergreen_petals_01 (two of them)

6. Tapestries wrong way round (pole should go into wall):
- furn_de_tapestry_01
- furn_de_tapestry_02 (lower room)

7. Upper room is maybe a little bare in the south-east corner. Both of the rooms could probably be a little smaller for the amount of clutter they have in them

8. You have mixed dumner (de) and imperial (com) items and also rich (r) and poor (p). This is not approved of at TR.

9. There is only one candle in the upper room. More lights should be added

Overall pretty good. There may seem like a lot of errors, but almost all were very minor and I was being picky. The biggest error is probably the style mixing. Fix these and someone will have another look over it.

***EDIT: Ninja'd by Chin. Well, if you fix all these errors, you should have no trouble getting promoted..

***

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:47 pm

Okay, hopefully is file is much better.
I moved things around and added some things, along with changing the architecture used.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:47 pm

Procrastination by review:

1. Floaters:
- both rugs in the lower room
- the sack and crate by the door
- Lives of the Saints
- Doors of the Spirit
- wardrobe
- chest in 'study' area
- two of the gold kanet flowers

2. Bleeders:
- barrel_02 (into the wall at the bottom)
- Reflections on Cult Worship (into the bookcase)
- chest of drawers (into the wall at the bottom)
- table in 'study' area (into the wall at the bottom)

3. Everything on both the bookcases needs to be brought forward

4. Most of the ingredients in the basket need to be manually rotated so they look like they're balancing at a realistic angle

5. It's still a bit empty. Both the rooms could be condensed to half their size with the same furniture and clutter.

6. The chandeliers are Imperial. I also might remove one or two; would you really have a full chandelier above a storage space?

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:41 pm

Hopefully one of the last ones, if not the last.
I hope I got all the floaters and bleeders, I changed the lighting and moved it around a bit. I also managed to reduce the size of the rooms, hopefully that worked out okay and makes it feel not so empty. I, also, tried to fix the ingredients in the basket.
So I hope this one is better.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:58 pm

1. Floaters:
- all three bookcases (move them away from the wall before f-ing them)
- wardrobe (very slightly)
- bed (very slightly)
- chest in bedroom (very slightly)
- two of the marshmerrow (need rotating or moving before f-ing)

2. Bleeders:
- barrel_02
- potted plant

3. Shelf should be sunk into the wall (it is currently floating in mid-air)

4. The Affairs of Wizards is too far off the book shelf

5. light_com_candle_07_64 (the candles without holders) looks a little out of place in a middle class house

6. Clutter wise, it's better, but the upper room could be made into a 3x3 to make it feel less empty.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:05 am

Okay, hopefully I fixed them all again. I tried to do a fairly good look over it, I tried to find all the floaters/bleeders.
Anyways, I changed the size like you suggested and it looks much better now, in my opinion.

So, again, I hope this one is a good improvement.

Chin Music · Post by **Chin Music** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:32 am

Much, much better than when I took a look at your first one. Everything is clean and tidy. Just a very few minor things I noticed:

- furn_de_rug_02 on the top floor is bleeding into the floor
- light_de_candle_13_64 on the top floor wardrobe is bleeding into the wardrobe
- Dunmer do not commonly use silverware or imperial plates (present on bottom floor table)
- No pillows on the bed

Overall, very nice. Just one other thing: a bookshelf does not necessarily mean it has to contain books! Try mixing it up with other things such as small chests, clothing, weapons, or other misc items such as pots, bowls, plates or bottles.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:31 pm

Okay, I tried to incorporate most of your suggestions as well as fix the errors.
So... here we go.

Chin Music · Post by **Chin Music** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:31 pm

You didn't have to change the shelves this time, it's just something to keep in mind.

There are still a few extremely minor errors, but the point of the showcase isn't to get this picture perfect. You have proven well enough that you understand how to use the Construction Set to make interiors like this, what and what not to do when making things for TR and how to fix any mistakes that you make.

Only thing I noticed which I must have missed the first time is that the chairs and tables are bleeding ever so slightly into the floor/rug. You would never even notice without the bounding boxes to tell you. I'm not entirely sure on the lamp posts being used indoors either.

If it were up to me, I would promote you. I'd just like to make a bit of a mention of a few more things and give you a few other tips:
1. Pillows on beds are usually bled into the bed slightly and are spaced evenly apart. There are some objects, particularly bowls, which taper down to a "point" on the bottom. When you simply "F" these, they only go as far as that point and this looks strange in-game and so objects that are like this are usually slightly bled into whatever they are resting on.
2. When you are placing multiple instances of the same misc item, such as bottles, plates, cups, etc, it is good to rotate them at different angles. It makes them look more interesting and "real".
3. Doorjams and doors have "load" versions for use with doors that teleport you between cells, they have "load" in their ID in the CS and only have visible textures on one side. I'm not sure what TR policy is on these, but I tend to use them and it makes it easier to tell which doors are supposed to be load doors.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:38 pm

Okay, thanks for checking over my interior. I'll keep all those things in mind for next time.

Perhaps, if needed, I'll try to improve upon this one later.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:02 pm

the lights were a bit bright for my taste. Affairs of wizzards is a Telvanni house book, and should not be here unless he is a member of the house.

other than that, it was good. Promoted for Interior Modding, welcome aboard

remember to keep the errors in your showcase in mind as youre making your first few interiors. its nice to have another chick around here!

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:08 pm

Lady Nerevar wrote:its nice to have another chick around here!

Heh, I'm sure it is.

Thanks for the promotion Lady N.

I'll take a closer look at the books, so I can learn what book is what. I regret never paying attention to them when I first played morrowind.

But before I start doing any claims, I want to help out with playtesting Stirk some more. Then I'll start on interiors.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:25 pm

the simplest way to check out books is to [url=http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/]use TIL[/url]. house books have their own section and each book has a description, so you can be sure of what youre putting in.

Andres Indoril · Post by **Andres Indoril** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:33 pm

Never mind the fact that Affairs of Wizard could also be found on the Balmora smith's bed....

Congratulations on the promotion and welcome to the team.

Aeven · Post by **Aeven** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:55 pm

Congratulations on your promotion!

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:33 pm

Thanks guys.

I hope I can I do a good job and contribute to the project alot.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:08 pm

Quest time.

Here you go, viking. Finally got the chance to make a quest. It is very small, and possibly doesn't cover as much as you'd like to see. I'm pretty sure I can make a larger quest, though if you need me to. There are however several decisions and the such in it.
There is one edited cell (In order for me to get the additional cave that I wanted, normally I wouldn't do this however) otherwise this file should be totally clean. Since I am not familiar with cleaning for quests, do tell me if I missed something, so that I can learn from that.

Just go to Balmora, right around the silt strider to begin it. Its fairly straightforward from then on.
Hopefully this is good enough.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:45 pm

Excellent to see some quest showcases! I'll have a look over this tonight and post up a review later.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:46 pm

Ok, review time:

1. Cleanliness

One small slip up: the line "Pardon me. But there's a very strange man in my house, and he won't leave. Will you go get him out of there, please?" has not been cleaned. Otherwise fine.

2. Script

Syntax is fine. The MenuMode clause is not necessary here - NPCs cannot be killed during MenuMode anyway.

My major issue here is that I will always get the journal update when this NPC is killed. If he happens to die at any time other than the planned one, the entry makes no sense. To fix this, you would need to add additional if clauses so that your update only occurs when you want it to.

3. Dialogue

- Most of the dialogue is through Greetings. Is there any reason it couldn't be through the Enchanted Bow topic? Some of it needs to remain in Greetings of course (like the initial greeting and "do you want me to wait here?" dialogue).

- You are a little overzealous with your filtering. A lot of your entries have 4 or 5 filtering requirements when only 1 is really necessary. For example, when using the choice function, you can use

Code: Select all

Choice, "Yes", 4, "No", 5

That way you can filter your response just by Choice=4, instead of using 1 with lots of additional filtering.

- You have also used a local variable for dialogue filtering. Whilst this is a very useful tool, it doesn't appear to be necessary here. I believe (although I may be wrong) that all your dialogue could be filtered using journal entries instead of the QState variable

- The entry "It looks like we got the theives." is never used because it requires the death of an NPC not placed in the game.

4. Quest / Journal

- Previously noted issue with killing Dralor out of sequence.

- There is no option to ask him to "stay here" on the return journey. Not a major issue.

- If you kill the thieves before starting the quest, Dralor's dialogue doesn't make sense.

- If I want to reject this quest, the quest stays in my journal quest list. A nice way around this is by using a local variable: on rejection of the quest, don't have a journal entry but instead set your local variable to 1. You can then filter your "second try" response by that variable and only update the journal if the player does agree to take the quest.

Don't be put off by all that though. Your quest shows a good understanding of how questing works. You just need to think more about different actions the player might take and be a little more efficient in your filtering.

Most TR quests will also require a bit more scripting. How confident are you with this? It's not strictly necessary to be promoted, but is definitely useful.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:02 am

Okay. Thanks MMMowSkwoz. To be honest those were mostly the errors I was afraid of appearing.
I know that I can do scripting just fine once I learn it. I hadn't used much of it because I wasn't really sure if it was necessary for the quest. So mostly right now its just a matter of learning it, then I'll be using it more often.

And now for the questions on how to improve this.

My major issue here is that I will always get the journal update when this NPC is killed. If he happens to die at any time other than the planned one, the entry makes no sense. To fix this, you would need to add additional if clauses so that your update only occurs when you want it to.

This is one I had thought of and noticed. However, I'm not really sure as to how I can make it figure out how he died and then properly show the right journal update.

You are a little overzealous with your filtering. A lot of your entries have 4 or 5 filtering requirements when only 1 is really necessary. For example, when using the choice function, you can use...

And just to make sure we're on the same page... By this you mean rather than using choice 1 & 2 and several other filters just use higher numbers (say... 3 & 4)?

I'll take a look at this all tomorrow and hopefully have an improved file up soon.

Again thanks for the quick review.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:38 am

Stryker wrote:This is one I had thought of and noticed. However, I'm not really sure as to how I can make it figure out how he died and then properly show the right journal update.

In this case, the easiest route would be the Umbra solution. When you meet Umbra and choose to fight him, you get a journal update that says "I will try to give him the death blahblahblah" and after he's dead, you get another that says "I have defeated yaddayadda." The OnDeath journal is dependent on the "I will fight you" journal, so it only happens in that situation. It's a little weird to be writing while you're under attack, but Beth does it all the time and the majority of players don't notice. Of course, you could also use that handy local variable to determine whether the journal entry is appropriate.

Stryker wrote:And just to make sure we're on the same page... By this you mean rather than using choice 1 & 2 and several other filters just use higher numbers (say... 3 & 4)?

Yup, that's exactly right. In one topic in q1-77, I go up to 13 in choice variables. Fewer filters = win.

And I agree with MowSkwoz; great to see more questers around. This is an excellent first file and you'll have no trouble getting promoted after a tweak or two.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:12 pm

It's worth repeating, so yes: more questers would be lovely!

One thing: "It looks like we got the theives."

If that's not MowSkwoz's typo, that would need fixing (I think - thieves is 'thieves', yes?).

Also, scripting would definitely be a plus. It looks like your current quest is pretty low on errors, so if you are able, it might be a better idea to start afresh, and maybe do something with more ambitious scripts? That would be good, and would help you learn more!

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:03 pm

Bloodthirsty Crustacean wrote:One thing: "It looks like we got the theives."

Hah, thats my typo I think. I hadn't even noticed it until you mentioned it.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean wrote:Also, scripting would definitely be a plus. It looks like your current quest is pretty low on errors, so if you are able, it might be a better idea to start afresh, and maybe do something with more ambitious scripts? That would be good, and would help you learn more!

I certainly might do that. I do want to try to do something with a bit more scripting involved.

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions all three of you.

I'll hopefully get started on the next one later today or tomorrow.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:55 pm

Sorry to double post...
I was working on improving the last file I did. One of my questions is: Through scripting, how can I check if all 3 of the thieves are dead, and then set a variable (say... QState) to a certain number once they have all died?
I've tried to look this up in the tutorials and on the internet, but I haven't found anything that actually helped.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:12 pm

Code: Select all

Begin TR_m1_q_576_CountThieves

short count
short Qstate
short doonce

;these blocks tally up the count of thieves
if ( ThiefOne->OnDeath == 1 )
     set count to ( count + 1 )
endif

if ( ThiefTwo->OnDeath == 1 )
     set count to ( count + 1 )
endif

if ( ThiefThree->OnDeath == 1 )
     set count to ( count + 1 )
endif

; this block checks the tally
if ( count == 3 )
     if ( doonce == 0 )
          set Qstate to 500
          set doonce to 1
     endif
endif

End

Et voila.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:19 pm

Thanks, BC.

Hopefully having this will help with speeding up this fixing process.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:54 pm

Just to add to that, maybe move the final block to the top of the script. This should prevent the rest of the script running once the thieves are dead, saving a little processing power. It's not an important point, but it's worth thinking about if the script is running on something likely to be in an external cell or large internal cell (which generally have a lot more things to process).

This script also has the nice effect of not registering the thieves death if you kill them without Dralor present (I assume this script is on him?). That should give you a nice workaround for some of those dialogue issues. Awesome.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:26 am

Okay, updated file.
Hopefully all of the gameplay errors were fixed in this file...
This one is a bit more reliant on scripting that before, but still perhaps not enough.
I hope the implementation of the dialogue was cleaned up considerably, I used alot less filters than before and moved most of it from the Greetings area.
Again, I hope I didn't miss anything when cleaning, I gave it a fairly thorough look through this time. So... I hope this one is an improvement over the last.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:34 am

Ha, I beat MowSkwoz to it this time!

I'll have a review up in 20 minutes or so.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:38 am

Faalen wrote:Ha, I beat MowSkwoz to it this time!

I'll have a review up in 20 minutes or so.

I love how its turning into a competition.

Thanks in advance Faalen.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:20 am

Right, I've perused the file briefly and I played most of the paths through the quest. I'm pretty much going to copy-paste my notes, so ask if something doesn't make sense and I'll try to clarify.

- The file is squeaky clean.

- I love the fact that you built in a back door in case the player completes the quest unknowingly, and that if you don't bring the bow with you, Dralor is just another NPC.

- Journal for contingency plan refers to "the" bow and "the" cave, which would be confusing if the player took the bow a long time ago without realizing its importance.

- Journal updates when killing Dralor are still off. When I finished the backdoor quest then killed him, I was told "Dralor was killed before he ever got his bow back." It looks like the player would also get this if he was killed without doing the quest at all.

- Player should be told what the quest is before accepting. Right now, the player has to say "yes" without knowing what the situation is.

- Incomplete in-quest greetings. If the player talks to Dralor inside the cave after giving him his bow, he gives default greetings.

- "enchanted bow" topic gives the "I am disappointed it was stolen earlier" response even if the player never heard that story, or if the bow has already been returned.

- Dralor stays in combat after all thieves are dead, with his sword out and combat music playing. (Semi-tricky to fix, but I can walk you through it if you like.)

- The player can talk to Dralor about the reward immediately outside the cave, rather than only in Balmora proper. (Difficult to fix since the cave entrance is technically in a Balmora cell. Easier to change the dialogue to "Let's go outside to discuss your payment.")

- I couldn't find the purpose of the Qstarted variable.

- Quadruple-check grammar and spelling. I'm a stickler, but so was Beth and mistakes stick out.

This file is much better than the first one. You're already getting a little more ambitious and that's great to see. Most of the errors this time around are dialogue-based, and not in a way that breaks the quest. If you can plug up these couple of holes in the dialogue and journal sequences, I would have no qualms recommending you for a promotion.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:27 am

That was longer than 20 minutes, Faalen.

But seriously, thanks for the speedy review. I'll get to fixing this stuff tomorrow morning, and hopefully have another uploaded in the afternoon or evening.

Oh yeah and...

Faalen wrote:Dralor stays in combat after all thieves are dead, with his sword out and combat music playing. (Semi-tricky to fix, but I can walk you through it if you like.)

This didn't happen to me when I tested it... But please do walk through it, I'd like to know how to fix it if it does happen.

Thanks Faalen.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:45 am

I'd be willing to bet that he stayed in combat because my test character is a god and kills everything in one hit (I test for functionality rather than balance). I killed all the bandits before Dralor really noticed them. If it doesn't happen to you in any situation, I wouldn't worry too terribly much. However, if you would really like to fix it, here's a little section you can add to the script in the same section that updates the journal when all the bandits are dead:

Code: Select all

if ( GetWeaponDrawn )
     StopCombat
     SetFight 30 ; or whatever his native fight setting is
endif

If you put this in, make certain it only runs after all of the bandits are dead, and Dralor is with you, and that it only runs once, otherwise Dralor will never fight back.

On the topic of AI, it might be a good idea to see if you can make Dralor walk back to his original position after the quest is complete. He has some possessions there, after all. It doesn't really matter one way or the other, though, since AITravel is demon spawn.

Stryker wrote:That was longer than 20 minutes, Faalen.

Meh. Sue me.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:06 pm

Hopefully fixed file. I didn't not implement any traveling back after the quest is finished, as I could not figure out how to do it.

However, other than that I tried to implement/fix everything you mentioned. If I missed anything just tell me and I'll fix it again.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:09 pm

Ah, the advantages of lurking. I'm on it, but no promise on time this time.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:58 pm

Double-post for great justice.

This file is very good. I am going to be very nit-picky, but that's because the only problems left are very small.

- The journal entry for the back door quest still refers to "the" cave and bow. If the player raided that cave, they would think nothing of either, so it's strange to have the journal update mention them as though they are important. I would recommend changing it to something like "I met a Dunmer who claims to be the rightful owner of an enchanted bow I found earlier."

- If the player refuses to give the bow back in the cave, Dralor doesn't give a "Goodbye" in his "I fight you now" dialogue, meaning the player can continue to discuss things with him.

- The journal entries for killing Dralor are much better. However, I did find a loophole where if the player kills Dralor after the bandits are dead, no update happens and the quest never ends. Admittedly I was trying to break the quest by doing this, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that it could happen. I'd suggest making the "Dralor was killed before he ever got his bow back" entry also available for the journal index that says the bandits are dead.

- I asked Dralor to wait outside the cave when I went in to kill the bandits. Since the journal update script is on him, nothing happens when all of the bandits are dead. When I went back outside, I got the "We have killed the thieves" journal, and Dralor gave default greetings. His "enchanted bow" topic still worked for me to give him his bow, but then he says "Let us go outside blahblah" even though that's where he is. I know you didn't plan for this contingency, but that's why I did it. Part of being a quester is thinking of all the cockamamie and backwards ways someone might go about finishing your quest and accounting for them.

- There are still fairly numerous mistakes in grammar and spelling. While dialogue is generally reviewed and corrected before merging a claim, it saves the merger a bit of work if you take care of as much of it as you can on your end.

Overall, this is very close. I think it's a good idea to post this one up just one more time, covering the areas above. You know the hows of questing, it's just a matter of getting the whats, whens and whys down too (if that makes any sense at all).

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:06 pm

Faalen wrote:- The journal entries for killing Dralor are much better. However, I did find a loophole where if the player kills Dralor after the bandits are dead, no update happens and the quest never ends. Admittedly I was trying to break the quest by doing this, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that it could happen. I'd suggest making the "Dralor was killed before he ever got his bow back" entry also available for the journal index that says the bandits are dead.

I don't really understand what you mean on how to fix this problem... And, geez, its hard to fix the journal updates when he dies.

Faalen wrote:- There are still fairly numerous mistakes in grammar and spelling. While dialogue is generally reviewed and corrected before merging a claim, it saves the merger a bit of work if you take care of as much of it as you can on your end.

I saw these errors coming.

I'm not really the most gifted when it comes to grammar. If you couldn't tell.

But I'll try to do better in the future.
(I'm sure there were several grammar errors in that paragraph alone.)

Anyways, I'll get a new file up perhaps in a little bit.
Thanks again for the review, Faalen.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:20 pm

Stryker wrote:
Faalen wrote:- The journal entries for killing Dralor are much better. However, I did find a loophole where if the player kills Dralor after the bandits are dead, no update happens and the quest never ends. Admittedly I was trying to break the quest by doing this, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that it could happen. I'd suggest making the "Dralor was killed before he ever got his bow back" entry also available for the journal index that says the bandits are dead.
I don't really understand what you mean on how to fix this problem

Right now, the "Dralor was killed" entry is dependent on journal 15, which is "I agreed to help..." I believe. The window for it should be expanded to include the "We have killed the thieves" entry. You can do this by nesting "if" statements. In other words, do something like this:

Code: Select all

if ( GetJournalIndex ST_Bandit >= x ); x is the index of the "I'll help you" entry
     if ( GetJournalIndex ST_Bandit <= y ); y is the index of the "thieves are dead" entry
          ;do the stuff here
     endif
endif

This allows that section of script to run whether one journal or the other is true, but not any higher or lower. This works especially well when the two entries are adjacent, so the section in the middle only runs for one of the two entries concerned.