Issue while writing quests

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Kevaar's picture
Kevaar
Developer EmeritusQuest Developer
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So I've run into a fairly major problem while writing quest showcases, and I'm not sure if it's a load order issue or something else obvious that I'm missing.

 

Anything to do with TR_Mainland and/or TR_Preview can't be editted directly. This means I can't change existing NPCs to fit my quests, only add new ones. I can't change existing interior or exterior design, to, for example, make easier paths to things. Anything that I change either gets duplicated (if I move a chair, in the game there'll be two chairs, one in the old location and one in the new), or the change doesn't take effect at all (NPC's AI and scripting will revert to what it is in TR's files.) Dialogue seems unaffected thankfully, I'm guessing because Morrowind's engine treats each topic as its own little Object, so nothing gets overwritten.

 

Is this a known issue? Do we have a work-around? I can fudge it with scripting to make something "look" right ingame for purposes of a showcase, but I'm guessing that would cause bloat, broken ID calls, and possibly other issues when it comes time to merge the quest mod file with TR. The only other thing I can think of is if I were to edit TR_Preview directly instead of making my own mod file, which I'm a little leery of.

 

 

Rot's picture
Rot
Quest Developer
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1 year 3 months ago

Already said something of it in your showcase thread but for a more complete answer, IIRC any changes to the properties (I'm thinking mostly coordinates) of specific references (ie instances of objects, NPCs... that were placed in the gameworld by the original ESP) will cause doubling. However, if your plugin is loaded after the ESP it's trying to modify, such changes as AI settings and scripts should apply, because they're done on objects (or object types / object IDs - as in the objects from the lists in the CS) and not on individual references (placed ingame).

Kevaar's picture
Kevaar
Developer EmeritusQuest Developer
Joined:
2016-01-19 19:35
Last seen:
1 year 6 months ago

A poster from Great House Fliggerty mentioned it also might be a dirty save game problem, so I'll play around with that, too.

 

I can't tell which file is the one causing the issues. In my Vhul quest, it is likely TR_Preview.esp, with the doubling issue you talked about. What would be the best way of going about this for moving items around in a showcase/quest preview? It sounds like it would require changing TR_Preview, or else work out a script that moves the objects to their new location upon the player entering their zone. Which, I dunno, both sound pretty messy.

 

The AI problem came about when I editing TR's version of MIstress Rathra in Tel Ouada. I would change the values of her Attack and Alarm in her AI in the editor, but when I loaded it up ingame, she acted like nothing had changed, and on reloading the mod in the Construction Kit, nothing had changed there, either. Also, having scripts ACT on her worked just fine , but changing the script that belongs to her also wouldn't "save". Is her information stored in TR_Mainland instead of TR_Preview? I'm not sure what effect TR_Mainland being a Master file would have on changes like that, but that might be the culprit.

Rot's picture
Rot
Quest Developer
Joined:
2014-03-16 17:45
Last seen:
1 year 3 months ago

Yes, the changes would have to be done on TR_Preview. Quest claims usually have notes of whatever changes they need done on files upon merge.

On your example, if I understand correctly that's perfectly normal - you were trying to modify the .esm directly, and you can't do that with TESCS. You need to save whatever changes you want to make to an esm into an esp plugin, and then load that plugin.