The Greatness' Showcase: now an interior!

[The Greatness]

See latest posts for interior stuff!

Greetings all! I'm a long time TES player since Morrowind, but only a recent modder. I have a fair bit of experience in the Oblivion CS, but after discovering TR I've turned my attention to the Morrowind CS so I can help. This is my first mod for Morrowind, and the only mod I've publicaly released.

I'd say my forte is scripting and dialogue, so I thought I'd work best as a quest modder. As a result I've made a short quest set in Sadrith Mora. To begin talk to Dalyne Arvel in the entrance of the Telvanni Council house, and ask about her stolen staff. The quest can be started by anyone, not just Telvanni, and doesn't require you to be very high level.

I feel this is quiet a good demonstration of my ability as it has a few slightly complex scripts (there are three beggining with 'TRS' which you can check out if you want). However, near the end (I won't lie to you) I did have to ask for help in the Bethesda forums over some infuriating bugs I was getting [url=http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1095642-2-weird-bugs/](here's the thread about it)[/url]. I hope that's alright.

Anyway, here's the file. I've cleaned it with TESAME (including GMSTs) and it's independant of any other master files. It may be incompatible with anything that alter Dalyne Arvel (I made her essential) or alters the script of the bed at the top of the Gateway, but I can't imagine that being a common problem.

[Thrignar Fraxix]

Not a quest person, so I won't be reviewing your showcase. I do want to say though that I love that avatar.

Welcome to the project.

Don't worry about asking questions or getting outside help. There is no problem with either of those and they are, in fact, encouraged if needed.

[immortal_pigs]

Overall quite good.

1. Check the spelling of your journal entries; you wrote "theif" and "suspitious" for example.

2. I don't think slaves should be able to talk about "I'm a staff merchant", or "Stolen Staff". You can probably filter them out with a "NotLocal NoLore = 0" filter.

3. You should change the greetings of Dalyne so that she is constantly asking about the quest rather then having generic greetings. Stuff like "So how are you coming along, %PCName" and stuff like that.

4. I see you've removed the "I'm a staff merchant" topic when the quest is completed. Might as well do the same for "stolen staff".

5. I think it's good that you've created a division of responses based on disposition. Like this:

Negative < 30
Neutral < 70
Positive > 70

But I would also vary the types of responses with Global Variable Random 100, so you don't have every single NPC saying the exact same line "Oh, you're a staff merchant. How interesting." You could have 2-4 random responses so it doesn't seem so generic.

Besides that I didn't see any major flaws. Good job .

[The Greatness]

Thanks for all the comments. Here's V2! These are the improvements I made:

1-Like you suggested I improved the dialogue. I added loads more responces for 'stolen staff' and 'I'm a staff merchant', cleaned up some spelling, made sure slaves don't say it and gave Dalyne some stage specific greetings.
2-I noticed that when killing Harvel in the Gateway the journal wouldn't update until you left the building. I fixed this.

EDIT: Just one question, was I right to put my greetings in Greetings 5? That looked like the one with misc. quests in.

ANOTHER EDIT: This version has a broken greeting or something that makes it impossible to talk to Dalyne. Please wait for V3 while I fix this.

HOPEFULLY MY LAST EDIT: Right, I have to admit that I rushed V2; I didn't even take the time to play it through. Hopefully this will teach me to never make that mistake again, as a quick playthrough shows it was obviously broken, so don't bother reviewing V2. I now have V3 which fixes V2.

Changes:
1-fixed the stupid bug
2-edited one spelling my brother pointed out

[immortal_pigs]

Quest greetings go into Greetings 5, yes.

You should PM Bloodthirsty Crustacean to ask if he will review your showcase. AFAIK he's the only one who can promote you to TR Modder.

Btw it's a good thing you now nudge the player in the direction of the guards with the response "You're looking for a stolen staff? I've heard quiet a few people are. You could ask a guard." Because asking a guard wasn't the first idea that popped into my head when doing the quest. (I asked like 10 people then quit and opened the CS to know who I had to ask )

[The Greatness]

I just added that because I was running out of ideas. Glad it improves it.

Thanks for all those suggestions by the way, that NoLore thing and Random100 will be very usefull, and I wouldn't have learnt of them otherwise.

EDIT: (I don't usualy make this many edits, seriously) it's a good job I made version 3, I just realised V2 isn't clean when I noticed it had a larger file size.

[Why]

Nice file.

Two remarks, the shorts HarvelKillyKilled and HarvelKilled can be omitted, you can use a GetDeadCount instead if you need to check if they're dead. Not a big issue though. Also, your file is dependent on Morrowind.esm only, please add dependencies for Tribunal.esm and Bloodmoon.esm too.

That's pretty much all the errors I could find. I liked your dialogue and the fact that I had to wander across town telling everyone "I'm a staff merchant" was pretty hilarious (but maybe I just have an odd sense of humour )

So ya, please make it have the proper dependencies and I'll look at it again and (unless I find any other errors) recommend you for promotion

edit: oh yeah, one more thing, don't make NPCs essential, that's only used for the vanilla main quest. This isn't oblivion

[The Greatness]

Why does it have to be dependant on Bloodmoon and Tribunal? I'll make all my work here so, by why is it important on my showcase? I can fix those unneeded variables though, and I'll remove Dalyne's essentail-ness (I wasn't aware of that, I always assumed they followed the same guidelines) and add a thing about her dying.

Anyway, thanks ! I'll get to work and see if I can fix those problems.

[Why]

Because all our files are dependent on those three, and it prevents the werewolf GMTS entries (which you did clean out, kudos for that) from appearing. Also they both add some cool script functions (ForceJumping is hilarious and GetSquareRoot is awesome, among others)

Essential in Morrowind just means you get some spooky message when you kill her ("By killing this character you have severed the thread of the prophecy. Load a previous savegame or persist in the doomed world that you have created" or something to that effect) so it won't do anything to prevent her from dying.

Looking forward to seeing your next file

[The Greatness]

Spooky. I've definately been thinking Oblivion too much. To tell the truth I origanaly planned the quest thinking Oblivion, as I thought I would be able to make Harvel walk into the Inn.

Anyway, I'm working on the next version.

[The Greatness]

Sorry about double post, but nobody takes any notice of edits.

I now have version 4.

Changes:
1- introduced independancy of Tribunal and Bloodmoon
2- removed essentiality of Dalyne and cleaned her changes
3- removed redundant variables and script and replaced with GetDeadCount

EDIT: I'm a bit of an idiot at the moment. I forgot to add a journal entry of Dalyne's death. Now I have in version 5. That is the only change. Hopefully this is the definative version.

[Why]

This is a very nice file and I'm confident you can handle TR quest claims, so recommended for promotion for quests!

[Bloodthirsty Crustacean]

If you got the Why say-so, I'll promote you. I haven't checked your file though, so if you do anything silly, it's not my fault!

An admin will give you your title and permissions soon.

[The Greatness]

Yes! Thank you! Nice...

Will the admin give me the file I need to work on too? I noticed one of the WIP files was dependant on TR_Mainland.esm.

EDIT: Forget that.

[Praedator]

Congrats and happy modding!

[The Greatness]

Thanks! I hope I can live up to expectations.

Right, I'm off to find something to claim.

[Why]

It's good to have somebody to blame in case things go south, isn't it BC?

If you have any questions just go ahead and ask them through PM to me or BC or in this thread. There's no such thing as a stupid question here so don't be embarrassed if something basic goes wrong. We got a few unclaimed quests, so if you want you can choose one and get right to work.

[Bloodthirsty Crustacean]

Take the Marog miscs, or an NPC claim, I would suggest.

Or, help to plan the quests in planning.

The Telvanni quests in Unclaimed are in a state of near-perpetual flux, and shouldn't really be touched until me and Ada work out what we want to be doing with the Telvanni.

[The Greatness]

Take the Marog miscs, or an NPC claim, I would suggest.

I've just claimed the Marog quests. Funny that, and also ironic that I'm finishing off the work of the guy that reccomended me for promotion .

I think I'll just go check it out in game now.

But just one question: an I right in thinking that those four claims are all that seperates Map 2 from completion?

[Kiteflyer61]

Congrats!

Welcome to the team.

[Why]

What's between the current map 2 and a release is that one claim, faction quests for Helnim, misc quests for Tel Muthada, and maybe the Imperial Archeological Society quests revolving around Kemel-Ze, all of which are still in design. Telvanni quests will probably be a seperate release.

edit: Oh yeah and congratulations!

[Bloodthirsty Crustacean]

And miscs for Helnim. Otherwise, yep (but yeah, Telvanni are a seperate release). We've been stalling for far too long on this release, so you could be the guy to help get it done. We are on the cusp.

It's really plans that hold us back, though. No one has ever really committed to sitting down and sorting out Helnim miscs or TG and FG; MowSkwoz was our last solid planner.

[Haplo]

Speaking of him, where'd Meeshka go?

[MMMowSkwoz]

Still here, but still working silly hours and not having enough time to do everything I want. Unfortunately, spending all day working in software development doesn't make me super enthusiastic about spending my evenings working on it too (even if it is of the much more fun variety!). I did a bit of work on my claim recently, but it's slow going.

Anyway, congratulations on the promotion Greatness. Looking forward to seeing your work.

[SamirA]

Yay for new questers. Congrats on the promo and welcome to the team.

Happy Modding!

[Yeti]

Congratulations The Greatness

[Scamp]

Congratz!

[The Greatness]

Thanks all!

[The Greatness]

Pass me that staff of worms. There.

So I've been a TR member for a bit now but I've been forced to revoke my only claim. Well, I say forced, I did choose to do it. The reason for that was my lack of enthusiasm at the time, but also because it was the day before I went on a 10 day holiday, which I was worried the claim would be forcibly revoked during due to my inability to reply. However, I am starting to regret that a little, as now I've downloaded a few cool bits and bobs and with a little effort got back to modding again. Had I the time I probably would have been able to finish the claim.

So why have I gone all Manimarco on this thread? I've decided that during this lul in the amount of quest claims I should have a go at something else, and something that doesn't take so darn long. I want to have a crack at being an interior modder. I'll be honest I do prefer quests but they're big claims and don't come very often, whereas I can make a small interior (which I'll probably stick to) in a day or two. I started this showcase this morning and I've just finished it (after a bit of testing and tweaking).

So, onwards to the showcase. As per regulations I've made a small Hlallu style house with de_p furniture. It fits ex_hlallu_b_22 and is made to house a lone Dunmer male. I've kept it nice and straightforward for this showcase by not making it for anyone special, although I did try to hint at him being something of a drinker. I also hid a small potion on top of his drawers to reward an observative player, although obviously this isn't something to do in every single house. The cell is called GreatnessShowcaseCell, so you can coc there in game if you want. Enjoy!

EDIT: I hope the barrels are okay. I thought that they might because other Dunmer places have crates, but now I think about it none have barrels.

[The Greatness]

No-one's replied yet but I slept on it and decided barrels were weird in a Hlallu house, so I've made a new version where I replaced them with urns. And while I was at it, I realised I hadn't added a pillow.

[Praedator]

I will look at it tomorrow morning, hope you can wait that long

[Scamp]

As far as I know, barrels are perfectly fine in dunmer interiors.

[The Greatness]

As far as I know, barrels are perfectly fine in dunmer interiors.

Really? Oh well, use the second one. It looks nicer.

I will look at it tomorrow morning, hope you can wait that long

That would be great, thanks. It would be even better with a bit less cheek .

[Praedator]

This is a quick review:

Gridsnap: Yes
Fits Exterior: Yes
Northmarker: Set
Clean: Yes
IllegalToSleepHere: Checked
Lighting Settings: Good

Remarks;
Rotation: I see you have put a lot of effort trying to rotate everything well. However quite a few items still need adjustment. The dotted box is a good guide for smaller clutter and if the box shape is close to the edges. If two opposite lines or corners are dotted you are genrally fine (in a gully). If three or four lines are dotted you are fine too. However if only one side or corner is dotted, then you have a bleeder or floater. After a while you will get the hang of it. For fine tuning use the specification screen and fill in the values you want.
Tapestries: the entrance tapestries are bleeding badly in the beam, maybe resize them so that the knot can be seen? Also the other tapestries are a bit too close to the wall, as the knots bleed, the wooden stem can bleed whatever you like. Also vary the tapestries a bit, at least different on different floors.
Rugs: Do not place items half-on, half-off a rug, as the result will always be partial bleeding or floating.
Lamps: Only use 256 radius in large ints, stick with 128 and 64 radius ones in a small int, and use them more frequently, however do not overlap them, which can be seen with the 'L' key
Sacks: All sacks and also the flat sacks need to bleed a little to look natural. Some as well as a basket are bleeding in a tapestry, avoid that.
Upstairs: I find upstairs a bit undercluttered.

Comments: Not bad at all for a first attempt. I would like to see that you go over all objects and check bleeding/floating/rotation. Also add some clutter upstairs, and rearrange/replace some tapestries. Also address the other points I have mentioned above, and you are well on your way!

Barrels are fine in any interior.

[The Greatness]

Thanks for that review. I fairly pleased with that, especially since it's my first time and I haven't made many interiors before (in fact I haven't made any in Morrowind). I've fixed the tapestries and the rug problem, although how I missed that the entire legs of one of my bookshelves was bleeding into the ground is beyond my. The rotation bussiness is giving me a bit of a head ache, especially with those tables- remind me never to use furn_de_p_table_05 ever again. I'll show you my newer version later.

[Praedator]

We require de_p for the showcase, but once you are promoted you can claim many ints that have flat furniture. However rotation skill should be good to place items on uneven surfaces like rocks in a cave for instance.

[The Greatness]

We require de_p for the showcase, but once you are promoted you can claim many ints that have flat furniture.

That 'unclaimed' page full of beatifully flat com furniture looks like the promised land at the moment.

[The Greatness]

Right, my new version is finished. I've made the following changes:
-I added loads more clutter upstairs, including a bookcase filled with more recriational items, more stuff on the table, and a few urns.
-I went over all the items to try and get them perfectly rotated.
-I changed some of the lights for weaker versions and added one more upstairs; I found that everywhere else it was bright enough anyway.
-I fixed the tapestries: I realise that the ones by the entrance still bleed a little, but that's how Beth did it and the only way to get them to fit.
-bled the flat sacks a little into the ground.
-Added some subtle variation in tapestry colour.

[SamirA]

We require de_p for the showcase, but once you are promoted you can claim many ints that have flat furniture.

That 'unclaimed' page full of beatifully flat com furniture looks like the promised land at the moment.

Ha! You would think so.

[The Greatness]

Have you ever noticed how Beth didn't bother with this rotating malarky. Lazy little-