Writer and Dialogue Writer

[Rydeh]

Hello, my names Mike but you guys can call me Rydeh. I've been eyeing up this forum for quite some time and recently, very recently actually become interested in joining. First of all i would like to say that i know well the relative difficulty of becoming a writer here and i have no qualms in being rejected at all. Let me tell you a bit about myself. In ES terms I have been playing the series for about 6 years now. I started off with Morrowind and then moved backwards, snapping up the games as best as possible and somehow - sometimes painfully running them on this atrocious Vista platform. And then of course I played Oblivion when it was released, though I have a heart for Morrowind. I am acquainted with ES lore as far as I have been reading as much as I can for various sites and in game, I have also kept up to date here to in the literacy forum.

Well as much as i could.

From my writing background I am currently writing my own book, actually a first out of a planned trilogy which is still currently and officially in a world building phase. I currently have a solicited agent and editor so I guess my work is not to bad at all, well hopefully. Now I wont pretend that I have all the time in the world to dedicate to TR, I have my own projects as I‘ve said and unfortunately I do have deadlines. But I’m not the type to say I will start something and then vanish 2 weeks later ether. However I do plan, if accepted, to do as much as I possibly can to aid the project as a whole. I am very into character development and plot progression so I would probably be more use to you within the ‘think tank’ and dialogue areas of writing but I have no objections ether in joining the book writing section.

I hope I can be of some help. I have read the requirements of what you look for, however what I would like to know is what type of ‘showcase’ would you like me to write for you to show of my skills as a writer? I take it you are looking for Hammerfell non-fiction from what I have already read.

By the way fantastic work on maps 1 and 2 so far. I'm really looking forward to further exploring Morrowind. House Dres here i come, soon i hope.

Thanks,
Rydeh

[immortal_pigs]

As far as I know, writing the dialogue of NPCs can only be done in two ways:

Either as part of a Detailing Claim (you'll also have to populate the wilderness, make NPCs, and make pathgrids, all very easy.)

Or as part of a quest.

There's also Quest Designing, so that's were you could help think up a plot for a quest.

At least that's the way it is for Morrowind, I don't know about Hammerfell.


In any case, if you want to write NPC dialogue or design quests, you'll probably need to become a TR quester.

I find the best tutorial for learning dialogue to be "Srikandi's dialogue tutorial", found near the bottom of this list: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/tutorials .

Now that tutorial should basically be enough to put together a quest, you don't even have to learn scripting if you know enough dialogue commands (like remove item, additem, etc...).

You could also browse the showcase forum for ideas, though quest showcases are slightly rare. Here's two recent showcases, though I believe they use scripting:

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=21037
http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=20427&highlight=

The quest doesn't need to be long, and if you make one with a lot of roleplaying options via dialogue, I think that would be enough to get promoted.

Good Luck!

As for literature, I assume you've already read this:
http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16311 .

[Rydeh]

Thanks Immortal_Pigs.

Nice name by the way, like it.

So i shall have to show a construction set 'showcase' of a quest including dialouge etc or just the story and dialogue here? A few exampels etc? I don't mind doing that at all the only problem i have is i use Vista which when i've tried the CS in the past it makes things vanish and the NPC's double up when i playtest it.

I once made a town for Tel Uvirith and alot of my exterior and interior vanished over time and i had to keep replacing it.

[MMMowSkwoz]

Yes, I think an actual in-game showcase would probably be required. Whilst full dialogue trees are good, it then means someone else has the crappy job of just inputting everything you've written. Dialogue editing is not hard to learn and simplifies things if you can just do it yourself. Check out the tutorial IP linked.

Quest designing doesn't really require that you use the CS, but you won't be able to view the Quest Design forum until you're a modder. A simple quest with maybe a few possible branches should be fine. If you have any problems, just ask. We're all happy to help

Not sure about those problems you had with Vista. Which directory did you install Morrowind to? And were you using an old save or did you start a new game when you used your plugin?

[Rydeh]

Hello mate, thanks for the reply.

I saved Morrowind into my C-Drive. But i saved the mod direct from the CS into Date Fils of course. Im pretty much a technophobe when it comes to computers in that sense. However when i made my mod for myself a few weeks ago the only way i can play the game without any problems would be to play it by 'Run as Administrator'. I can't run my mod as administrator because the mod simply is not on the Date Files list to pick from.

I can run it if i play the game normally but then items go missing. A door jam here, a set of steps there etc. And saving my progress in the game has problems.

Basically the only way i can play the game without problems is through admin but by doing that it seems like it has problems picking my mod from the data files list but no one else’s. The mod is not even in the date files file when i look ether. It's very strange. If i can get this sorted i have no problems doing a small CS showcase

[Faalen]

If you're not set up as the administrator on your computer, Vista won't let you create or alter any files in the Program Files directory. It instead saves them to a random fake other location and tells the program it went where you told it to even though it didn't. This makes it effectively impossible to save mods if Morrowind is installed in the default directory and you are not your computer's administrator. If you run Morrowind as an administrator, it doesn't look for the fake directory and so doesn't find the mod you made. As far as things disappearing, I can only speculate that when Vista saves things to its phony directories, it doesn't do so perfectly. Either that or the file and/or your save are corrupted somehow.

In any case, this problem is one that would be better solved by a quick Google search than by asking on this forum. We're more than happy to help, but there aren't all that many of us and most of us are fairly busy with various projects most of the time. Best of luck deciphering Microsoft's next generation security protocols, and I hope to see you back once you've got things working. Welcome to TR.

[Rydeh]

Just to be clear Faalen i'm, not sure i asked for anyone’s advice, and i'm sorry it seemed that way. I was merely explaining the circumstances of why i may not be able to produce an effective CS showcase to you guys at the moment. I had no idea that i would need to produce quests in CS to write quests or dialogue for TR.

I have modded' for myself with some success and as said i have no problem with doing it providing i can work out the glitches. And believe it or not i have in fact searched Google for the glitch but with little results. Again i apologise for the crossed wires.

On top of that i was told by the person before you that people were happy to help, hence why i continued with the subject and answered the questions he asked.

I will try and get these problms sorted out and come back. Knowing me though the computer will catch fire.

[Faalen]

I didn't mean to sound inhospitable. It's fine and encouraged to ask for advice here. What I meant to convey is that you'll probably get faster answers to your questions on a forum dedicated to the CS or to Vista's idiosyncrasies than you will here.

And it isn't required to post a quest showcase to propose ideas for quests and dialogue, or to write literature. However, to actually implement work yourself or to design quests in an official capacity you will need to be promoted to Modder status, which requires proficiency in the CS. It is theoretically possible to be promoted for writing alone, but I have never seen it happen. In any case, that's Nanu Ra's department and he has the first and final say on any decisions on the literature front.

[Rydeh]

Actually Faalen it was on your advice and an idea you gave me that actually sorted out the problem, i too apologise for sounding rude. It's early and im tired. Lol. It now works under the admin account i had to prompt with script on the csb.

Thank you.

I will come back shortly with some results.

[Nanu]

If you think you can write on par with the things in Finished Books, then feel free to write up something and post it here. If you can blow my socks off (they're on pretty tight) it'd be great to have another writer around.

[Rydeh]

I will try my best Nanu. I'm still trying to get my head around the quest tutorial right now too which is driving me crazy!

[Nanu]

I know how hard the CS can be to pick up, but I assure you it only gets easier.

[blackbird]

Maybe this topic could help you:
http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=21130

[Rydeh]

Thanks for the help mate, i got it working.

Nanu, i know it's Morrowind related and those books are pretty much flooded now but i would really like to write something on the Index's. Is that possible at all?