Tamriel Rebuilt

Hey there,

work on the editor has begun and thus some debates about how we should handle things. One specific subject was about whether or not our editor, despite of it's advanced functionality and possibilities, would still be able to compile mod's for vanilla MW. A simple answer would be no, because why would people still be using the old Morrowind engine while there is a better, etc. etc. engine for free. I'm not sure about this matter though and I wanted to do some poll.
So once OpenMW is out, would you like the TR project to change engine for it's possibilities, would you like to use a (lets hope ) better editor (with or without vanilla compiler), or would you rather keep it oldschool?

It will be very helpful if most of the modders gave an answer and some optional explanation.

Thx,
Zedd

Well, I think that vanilla Construction Set mods should be made compatible with OpenMW if possible, and that it should be possible to reverse engineer OpenMW mods back to the vanilla engine if possible. It just gives people greater flexibility about how they want to play Morrowind, and lets modders know that their mods can be used by everyone who wants to.

Terrifying Daedric Foe wrote:Well, I think that vanilla Construction Set mods should be made compatible with OpenMW if possible, and that it should be possible to reverse engineer OpenMW mods back to the vanilla engine if possible. It just gives people greater flexibility about how they want to play Morrowind, and lets modders know that their mods can be used by everyone who wants to.

All mods for Vanilla Morrowind are supposed to be compatible with the OpenMW engine. And reverse engineering would be impossible if the mod uses the new features given to him. The question is more whether or not we should add a vanilla Morrowind compiler, this also means you'll be able to disable the enhanced modding possibilities while modding. We are not sure if people will still be using the vanilla engine once OpenMW is out. That's the most important question actually, I know it's hard to say now, but are you guys planning on using the OpenMW engine, or are you not that interested (considering TR only). The clarification I'm trying to get is more about why you wouldn't use OpenMW, not about what the pro's and cons are about the (possible) vanilla Morrowind compiler.

OpenMW wrote:We are not sure if people will still be using the vanilla engine once OpenMW is out.

My uncle was using netscape navigator until about 2010, people will definitely still be using the vanilla engine once OpenMW is out.

I think it's safe to say we're very excited for OpenMW, especially for improved game performance on contemporary systems like laptops and whatnot, and a more stable editor would be awesome (land tears, anyone?). However we've always been a no-additions kind of mod, requiring nothing but the base game, no MWSE or anything, and I can't see that changing any time soon. I'd be interested in your construction set, and I'm very much willing to do my utmost to make our mod fully compatible with OpenMW (I remember exploiting bugs in MW's script to make certain stuff work though I can't come up with examples right now) but I don't think we'll ever be "OpenMW exclusive" or anything unless literally 95+% of the user base switches over to OpenMW. So, yes, I'd use your editor, if it has a reliable vanilla compiler.

Though as always, things may change, and we're open to new ideas. I'd be especially excited for things like scripted spells and custom weather types and the like, but while things like that would be awesome, they're not within our scope right now. I think, especially for custom weather, we could consider a "TR OpenMW edition" of some sort. The Deshaan needs salt storms. But I doubt we're ready to abandon vanilla any time soon.

Thrignar Fraxix wrote:

OpenMW wrote:We are not sure if people will still be using the vanilla engine once OpenMW is out.

My uncle was using netscape navigator until about 2010, people will definitely still be using the vanilla engine once OpenMW is out.

Unfortunately this is a big concern. Not only will there be people who simply don't know of or don't use OpenMW, but there will also be people who use ProjectAedra over OpenMW (due to multiplayer and/or other reasons). Due to this uncertainty, TR modders won't be able to use the OpenMW editor unless there is a foolproof, error-free method for dumbing the new editor down to the "Morrowind CS" level (sort of like the TI-Inspire calculator that comes with a TI-84 faceplate that you can switch between when you only need TI-84 functionality).

However, as an individual modder, I personally would love to see an OpenMW CS, and I urge you guys to go above and beyond with development of it. The best way to ensure full penetration with your CS is to make it simply far and away the best choice over the vanilla CS, so that it only takes a relatively short time for the vast majority of people to make the switch.

All of this is still uncertain because there is still not a single "release" of an engine substitute, let alone a CS substitute. So we can't say for sure how popular an OpenMW CS will be until we can see how popular OpenMW itself will be.

Thanks for the replies.