Status of Stirk 1.0?

Doedel · Post by **Doedel** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:27 pm

The last I've heard was a couple of weeks ago it being said that Stirk 1.0 will be released "soon".

What is the status of this release?

As an aside, I found trying to find information on TR Hammerfell very... annoying. I know you chaps are working on two projects -- Morrowind and Hammerfell -- and trying to differentiate information on one from the other is a tad fuzzy. Might I suggest some effort be placed into seperating the two projects in the forums and clearly identifying what's what on other pages? For the newcomer (or old-comer who hasn't been around in awhile) it can be quite daunting and confusing.

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:33 pm

The way I understand it is that both projects are in one forum because so many modders work on both projects. I can see how it's a little confusing, but once you lurk around for a while it becomes pretty much immediate to determine which project a particular thread is for (it also helps that virtually all Hammerfell threads have a "Hammerfell" tag). Essentially, splitting the forum in half would be a massive amount of trouble for something that is neither necessary nor desirable for the majority of members.

As far as Stirk goes, it's very close. Don't forget that this project doesn't have deadlines. "Final testing" can mean anything from 24 hours to two months; it will be out as soon as the team is confident in its quality.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:21 pm

Yep, it's pretty much a rule that as soon as you say something will be ready soon, you immediately find 100 new problems to deal with.

I also found the Hammerfell/Morrowind thing confusing when I first visited the site, and yes, it could be clearer. But most of the team are super busy so cleaning up the forum just isn't high enough priority.

I don't think there's any need to seperate the forums (like Faalen said, it becomes obvious very quickly if you hang around a bit), but it might be a good idea to limit the post tags to either Morrowind or Hammerfell for non-showcase public sections of the forum.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:10 pm

the main problem with splinting the forums is that so much is interconnected. there are tons of members who contribute to both projects, and just about all the rules/regulations are the same. if a thread mentions morrowind its TES3, hammerfell TES4... if it mentions both/neither its safe to assume that it applies to the project as a whole

as of last testing, all problems have been fixed. we still need to run a final round of tests, theres a lot of tricky scripting and AI in stirk which likes to bite us in the ass. we want this release to be perfect

theviking · Post by **theviking** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:40 am

Its very close, in fact I fixed all the errors that presented itself to me through the playtesters. Only, they keep on reporting errors!

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:42 am

theviking wrote:Its very close, in fact I fixed all the errors that presented itself to me through the playtesters. Only, they keep on reporting errors!

How inconsiderate!

seden · Post by **seden** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:52 am

Good news, I've been following stirk for so long now that some more weeks arent going to kill me, but still thanks to all the people who gived time to this project

RelinQ · Post by **RelinQ** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:51 am

theviking wrote:Its very close, in fact I fixed all the errors that presented itself to me through the playtesters. Only, they keep on reporting errors!

Hmm I may only be doing some exterior work, but I know how that feels

Look at the bright side, at least our mods and expansions are cleaner than anything EA Games ever released, hahaha

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:43 am

Ok, finally I'm playing Oblivion, and can't wait for the final release of Stirk. Just a question: in the final version, the OoT files will be packed in a .bsa, or will stay as they actually are?

TheGooch · Post by **TheGooch** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:18 pm

i ask LadyN about bsa's, and they will be packed as they are. aparently by making them a bsa it ADDS to the file size(i think she said by 20mb or so) rather than compress it...

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:30 pm

This is very odd because it should be possible to make compressed BSA for Oblivion...

Aeven · Post by **Aeven** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:46 pm

Isn't there a compression function in the BSA format for the Oblivion engine?

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:09 pm

it compresses , but it does not compress it more than a 7z (which was my thing). an OoT 7z file is 112 MB, an OoT bsa would be roughly 160 MB (added 45 MB at last testing).

Strik's side of data is not very large, it could probably be put into bsa without sacrificing too much space

Aiwyn the Breton · Post by **Aiwyn the Breton** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:47 pm

oblivion reads 7z?

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:04 pm

Why don't you make it a .bsa and then pack the .bsa in a .7z file? That compresses it more than using one or the other, because .bsa isn't really a compression format, it's an archive format. Obviously the professional compression software is going to compact the file more than an archiver that happens to compact files a little bit. That's what we do for TR, I archive all the files into a .bsa, and then I put that plus the other folders like icons and sound into a .7z file, which gives me a final file size smaller than what it would be without both.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:16 am

the only part of OoT that doesnt go into bsa is the esm. compressing the bsa into the 7z didnt seem to save much (if any) space last time i did it.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:06 am

Lady Nerevar wrote: Strik's side of data is not very large, it could probably be put into bsa without sacrificing too much space

Ok, think about that. The .bsa is the easiest solution for installing/uninstalling mods. Also, I discovered that some Oblivion mods comes with the data files all packed into an OMOD file, which can be read with an utility called 'Oblivion Mod Manager' (which seems to be quite popular). So, if you want to play an OMOD mod and own OMM, all that you have to do is put both the .esm and the OMOD file in Oblivion/Data, and you're done. Perhaps there could be an OMOD version of Stirk as well, I don't know.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:24 pm

im not at all familiar with OMODs or their popularity. ive read however that there are more things to mess up with making OMODs than with regular archives. i'd rather stick to an esp + bsa so that anyone can use it (and really, how hard is it to drop two files in a folder?)

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:26 pm

The main interest of an omod is if you don't use a bsa anyway, since it allows Timeslip's Oblivion Mod Manager to uninstall a mod completely.

Also helpful is that it manages name collisions, if you have two different mods that both add a mesh or texture with an identical path and name, the omod makes sure it's the version from the last mod in the load order that is found by the game.

Neither of those things should apply to Stirk since we put everything in TR subdirectories and we'll use a BSA.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:22 am

Lady Nerevar wrote:im not at all familiar with OMODs or their popularity. ive read however that there are more things to mess up with making OMODs than with regular archives. i'd rather stick to an esp + bsa so that anyone can use it

Ok, then go for the .bsa. Thank you.