I have decided to share the very early work of my new COM addon for TR, so that COM fans on this forum may review it if interested and provide feedback. This is a pre-alpha, meaning it is not at all polished at this time. There is no readme yet at this early stage, so I will share relevant information in this post. Requirements: Children of Morrowind, TR Mainland, TR Data.
Currently, there are child and/or teen npc’s in the following areas:
Ashamul (2)
Ayemar (3)
Bahrammu (4)
Baldrahn (1)
Cephorad Keep (1, no Tel Muthada yet)
Enamor Dayn (6)
Evos (2)
Fire Watch (27)
Seitur (1)
Tahvel (1)
Tomaril Manor (2)
Fort Umbermoth (1)
Verulas Pass (1)
Dreynim (4, not complete please see notes)
Details:
The plan is for “Children of Tamriel” to add kids and/or teenagers to settlements in TR. My plan is with each release version of CoT to include whatever TR settlements are on Mainland at that time. The CoT project will not touch Preview towns no matter how complete they look, due to various reasons including the demographic research I do on each town, some players choosing not to run incomplete lands, etc. With each Mainland update I will go through and see if new towns have been moved out of Preview and into official release, and add them accordingly. If and when TR is officially complete, there will probably be several hundred kids and teens all over Morrowind province! There are approximately 400 in the original CoM on Vvardenfell and TR is much bigger so this project is likely to grow a lot over the next few years. I am also trying to fit the kids to the town populations demographically, though in the case of teenage apprentices I am allowing myself a small degree of flexibility. No little kids of a race in a town where there are no adults of that race, etc.
Younger kids I am setting up similar to the original CoM, with a playground in the settlements and the kids mostly centered around there. However, the original CoM mostly treated teens as big kids, and I am taking a radically different approach with those characters which is likely more lore-friendly. Elder Scrolls is set in a fantasy world loosely based on ancient and medieval civilization, during which by teenage years people were already training for their careers. Therefore, I believe that the teens of Tamriel, particularly in a dangerous and conflicted province such as Morrowind, would already be apprentices in their chosen (assigned?) careers. For example, I have a few young soldiers in training for the Legion, amongst other teenage apprenticeships.
The dialogue from original CoM, which CoM characters are tied to by their child class setting, is roughly adequate for the little kids though could use an update. However, due to the new role of teens in my TR version, the dialogue for teens does not fit at all. Before I do a Version 1 public release, I will have to redo the dialogue for my teen characters. I want to finish placing my kids in the current mainland towns first and then I will work on dialogue. Currently, I do not recommend talking to the teen characters due to the clash of role and dialogue. It’s embarassingly comical.
Further note on Dreynim: I’m not sure what to do there. My original idea for the Spa was to do a “teenagers on spring break vacation” thing there to help break up the serious nature of life in Morrowind province. However, after thinking about it, it doesn’t really fit the lore. Dreynim Spa is described as being a popular resort, so it’s a half-fit to the lore, but I can’t currently think of why a bunch of kids busy in their rigid apprenticeship trainings would have time to get together and go there. That said, there is a little kid living in the village proper, a teenage waitress in the Spa Restaurant, and left over from the vacation idea, a teen couple swimming together at the hot spring. If I drop the vacation idea I will move those two elsewhere.
Due to CoM usage rules each of the kids has a schedule script so they only appear during in-game daylight hours. Also, they are unkillable. If you attack one, they are scripted to teleport away, and even if there are no witnesses you receive a bigger bounty than for any other crime. Guards will have a death warrant on your head pretty quickly if you decide to be a creeper.
Finally, the CoM assets include baby carriers and pregnancy robes. I have not currently implemented these features. I do plan to put in some babies, though am undecided about whether to include pregnants. Unlike the kids which are whole npc’s, using babies and pregnancy robes involves either adding or modifying existing adult npc’s. I’m not sure how I want to implement this. Also, original CoM only gives babies to women. When I add my baby carriers, I plan to include a few dads too.
If interested, please take a look and comment below! Also, if you have ideas or suggestions, I’ll be glad to hear them. I can’t guarantee I will take every idea into consideration, due to my limited modding experience, but I do not work in a vacuum. TR is collaborative, always evolving, and this addon will likely reflect that as it rounds out an important part of Morrowind’s society.
| Attachment | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Children of Tamriel Pre-Alpha Proof of Concept.ESP | 35.18 KB | 2016-06-21 04:00 |
2015-09-28 20:13
1 year 11 months ago
Oh wow, the last time I used Children of Morrowind was so long ago – I always found it terribly intrusive. Specifically, the playgrounds.
Your description sounds appealing despite that, though (specifically the teenage apprentices), so I’ll check it out.
Since it’s unlikely that we will ever be able to include CoM officially due to the restrictions on it, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this becomes popular.
2015-12-29 23:11
3 years 3 months ago
This is actually something I was wanting to see done for a long time. I even posted on Emma’s forums to ask if anyone had plans for it and they said it would be a good idea but nobody’s done it yet. so it’s good to see you working on it. Unlike Anony above, I’m less concerned about mods altering towns or landscapes as long as the general layout is intact. I’ll give this a try.
Also, smart move not using preview. A lot of it isn’t finalized anyway. (especially down south)
dunno if you’re doing this already or not but child versions of some of the house clothing would be nice.
2016-06-07 00:41
1 year 2 months ago
I’ve noticed that the armors appear on my teen soldier apprentices without issue so the clothing should too. I’ll look at the new TR clothing this weekend though I have just been using CoM assets up until now except for the few in armor. Teens in armor are not receiving helmets, shields, or weapons, since they are not lootable anyway.
2015-12-29 23:11
3 years 3 months ago
the problem with using TR (and regular for that matter) clothing and armor is that it tends to use adult proportions for the chest area on females. There’s probably a way to use the male body part for the kids accordingly, but I assume it would mean making a new instance of each piece of clothing. I’m sure someone knows how to do it with few problems. Also, you may check Emma’s forums if they’re active enough still. I’m sure someone there might be willing to help make child versions of some of the TR clothing (and possibly armor if that’s what you want)
In Bahrammu putting the playground in the middle of a road probably isn’t the best place for it. sure the player can squeeze through and all but it seems a little random there. Bahrammu is a pretty poor town as well so I doubt the kids would have much to play with there anyway.
2015-12-12 23:47
2 years 7 months ago
Historically I think playgrounds are a fairly new idea, I don’t recall there really being anything similar in the past. Children were mainly just smaller workers. But there were areas children played in frequently, and there probably would be remnants of them building forts for fun or whatever.
As for adult proprtions on teens, it really depends on the person if that’s accurate, but it would really be nice to see some modified proportions. It would require new models though.
Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.
2016-06-07 00:41
1 year 2 months ago
Modeling is beyond my abilities. For Version 1 at least I will have to keep with existing assets. I'm doing playgrounds mainly to stylistically match Vvardenfell's original CoM setup. I didn't really think they fit lore too well either.
2015-12-29 23:11
3 years 3 months ago
That’s kinda why I suggested checking for someone on emma’s forums to help with models.
2016-06-07 00:41
1 year 2 months ago
I am attaching screencaps of my soldier recruits so you can see how armor currently looks on teens.
Also, I have given more thought to how I am going to implement the dialogue overhaul. The little kids are going to keep the original CoM dialogue for now. It fits them well enough if slightly cheesy, and could use an update, but it’s not really a priority. For the teens, which have to be completely redone given the new direction CoT is taking, I am doing a three step process. First, teenagers tend to have an understanding of current events. To show this, I am giving them a new version of the script with the Nolore taken out so they get the normal dialogue topics. Then, I will remove the kid class from them and replace it with whatever the class they are in apprenticeship for, to remove the no longer appropriate kid greetings. Finally, teens will be given a one paragraph “backstory” to give each of them a bit of uniqueness and personality, which the player can ask about if the kid’s disposition is high enough. These will take me quite a bit of time to write, but the first two changes should at least remove the embarrassing dialoge mismatch for now.
2016-06-07 00:41
1 year 2 months ago
In response to the Bahrammu comment, I have moved the sandbox under the big tree in the middle of town instead of outside the gate, and deleted the rest of the playground equipment. Even in the poor villages I feel the kids should at least have something. Anyway, I am creating the characters for Necrom and Bal Oyra, then going to bed as it is late. I’ll place them tomorrow and if there is time move on to another next town also if I can. I have approximately 35 areas to do for Version 1, so I need to do a bit at a time.
2016-06-07 00:41
1 year 2 months ago
Progress on CoT will be zero this week. I am in a convention panel on Friday and my team is focused on finishing preparations. In a few weeks I'm planning to put up another WIP version since continuing feedback I feel will help me make a better project.
My Linking Books project Version 1 is within an hour of completion but will be held off and released later. I'll gladly accept testers for it though!