btmangan10 Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) Hello everyone! Feel free to ignore this topic. I've decided that every day I will post what I have done "in the world of modding". Mostly, this is to keep myself accountable... and to externalize my thought processes. ----Day 1- From Humble Beginnings... For a while now, I've had a mod concept... an expanded Ordinator faction (as a subfaction for the Temple). Oh crap, I hope I'm not ignoring a pre-existing mod made by the community.... *browses Morrowind Nexus mods* Nope! *sigh of relief* Today... I downloaded the steam fix for the Morrowind Construction set. It's been a long time since I opened that program and saw that little knife icon! I opened "Introduction to scripting"... a little guide I remembered from my last... *ahem* attempt at modding. I started reading a few pages and soon found myself skimming, with a little aftertaste of fear. Big mountain to climb.... So baby steps. Ordinator in Seydna Neen... that's doable. So I dropped the guy in. Almost accidentally renamed ALL honking ordinators to "TESTTESTTEST". Will I continue to make my edits to the pre-existing ordinator object? Or should I create a new Ordinator object for my mod to limit conflicts? Decisions decisions... Tomorrow... perhaps I try dropping a custom NPC into the hall of justice with a few custom topics? I remember dialog being slightly tricky when I last attempted this... :sad: Until tomorrow... http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/day1_zpsyxasdcy7.png Edited June 25, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted June 26, 2017 Author Share Posted June 26, 2017 (edited) Day 2- Custom Text Appears!I never quite figured out how to actually trigger the AddTopic when I tried this in high school. This may be a small victory, but it's a significant one for me personally. I am officially further than I've ever been before! Tomorrow I create a "join Ordinator" topic and set some conditions? Should I use the existing Ordinator barracks, or should I make a custom safehouse? Should be plenty to meditate on in my dreams tonight! http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%200_zps82cozxmy.png Edited June 26, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblivionaddicted Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 What's your final goal with this mod? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted June 27, 2017 Author Share Posted June 27, 2017 (edited) What's your final goal with this mod? Thanks for the interest! "Final goal" is a bit nebulous, but I suppose that I'm looking to create a fun Temple subfaction mod that fits fairly seemlessly into the vanilla game and adds to the world. I'm going to try to get a bunch of things lined up and in order for my next Morrowind playthrough... and then I would love to help others with their projects in whatever respect is required (I'm very interested in getting into the world of voicing). I see you've made a number of playability mods yourself. You have a bit of a head start though >_>... Anyhow! I'd love to see more love given to the Temple... the Ordinators, and Buoyant Armigers and I think this doesn't need an enormous number of new characters and stories, per ce. Edited June 27, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted June 27, 2017 Author Share Posted June 27, 2017 (edited) Day 3- Would You Like To Build A Fetch Quest? Glancing nervously to Fargoth's "ring" quest... trying to remember the syntax.... And Our first fetch quest! A bottle of rare brandy for an irritable Ordinator! No readily apparent bugs. The next stage of things will require more NPC's... which means more dialog writing. I hope I get more used to it... Writing dialog makes me a bit nervous as of now. :\Anyhow, progress is progress and I shall allow myself a moment to celebrate! ----Warning, our drunk Ordinator is a bit nasty with his language. http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%204_zpswawopmm0.png http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%205_zpsmczfr74v.png There should be a disposition bump with the completion of the quest! That will be the first thing I tackle tomorrow. I can't help but feel that I could get used to this kind of programming... this level of input accounts for about 95% of Morrowind, if I'm not mistaken... now just the application of persistence and a little elbow grease and we will see exactly where this rabbit hole goes... Edited June 29, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted June 29, 2017 Author Share Posted June 29, 2017 (edited) Day 4- Problem, Scriptlution? So... upon looking for the "friend" of our Drunk Ordinator, I wanted there to be a run in with the law in the Andus Tradehouse. Just 1 problem: There is no law in the Andus Tradehouse. So I guess we'll have to spawn a Redoran Guard in the Andus basement via a script! I mean, that's terrifying and all. The Attempthttp://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ditch_zpsek9izlr7.pngProfit! The bugger spawned! http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%206_zpsbrty3oli.png It's hard to explain my giddiness. I know this is still some very low level stuff, but the barriers I always felt standing in my way are falling away. One by one. Edited June 29, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 Day 5- Stop Right There, Modder Scum! Not very intimidating if the guard doesn't confront you at the entrance and force a conversation... otherwise you can walk right on past... Had to do a little digging into the script language syntax... a few googles until I found the commands, and then all I had to do was whip up the lines and attach the script to our custom Redoran Guard NPC object! begin BTM_DitchDigger_ForceDialog short once if ( Menumode == 1 )returnendif if ( once == 0 )if ( GetDistance, Player <= 512 )forcegreetingset once to 1endifendif end BTM_DitchDigger_ForceDialog --And for the moment of truth... http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%207_zpscyxmb6jt.png Ta da! We have a forceful initiation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btmangan10 Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 (edited) Day 6- A Detour Becomes A Journey... It all started with a disable command... I disable Miss "Bridgett", my contact at Andus Tradehouse and added a mysticism effect to make it appear as if she'd teleported. That's sloppy... disabling her, and then creating a new her somewhere else. Not clean programming at all... Downright barbaric, in fact. And so I poured over my new favorite resource, the "unofficial scripting command sheet" for a command to move items. The "PositionCell" command proceeded to give me hours of headache. I placed an item in the game world where I wanted my Bridgett and copied down the coordinates, but the command failed. Frustrated, I tested the coordinates myself and found myself not east of Ald'run, but instead, south of Caldera! Re-checking and re-emphasizing by the same methods landed me even further south. I only resolved after booting up my client and literally walking to the spot I wanted to send "Bridgett" and then manually typing in "GetPos x" "GetPos y" and "GetPos z" for the coordinates. But when I saw the final teleportation work as needed well... it was all worth it. :wink: http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%208_zps8fxxxtso.png This dialog really needs a goodbye function. I could carry on a 2 hour conversation with her after she's teleported as it stands! xD http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q218/btmangan/ScreenShot%209_zpsla3rmoii.png Right Where I wanted her! ---What's next? It's really easy to take a stress-relief shower and collapse into my own self congratulations, but this is just 1 stinking quest... how much time can I really allow myself to squander before tying a nice knot on the thing and sending it home? I figured my quest should be thought of in stages. Stage 1, meeting the ordinator and getting the quest and being sent off as one of his "ditch diggers" has been long complete. Stage 2, meeting Bridgett Estiban and running from the Redoran Guard, was almost done as well. I think what this quest needs is some character for Bridgett and a small little cave for her and the PC to clear out. That should be the end of stage 2. Stage 3 should be a bonus stage (personality wrangling with the characters we've met, one that rewards the PC for knowing the personalities of our NPCS)Stage 4 should be a final stretch. Something that represents the end of our drunk Ordinator's ambitions resulting in either success or victory as well as a small meditation on what that actually means. Made new friends. Cared about them. Learned about them and perhaps uncovered more of the story than was required. Cleared an obstacle. Chewed on some philosophical meat. Isn't that the perfect quest? Perhaps perfect is a bit of a stretch for my first, but why not aim high. Edited July 5, 2017 by btmangan10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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