"The Town of Auchendale - An Imperial haven in the Ashlands" - Trifxn Showcase

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trifxn's picture
trifxn
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"The Town of Auchendale - An Imperial haven in the Ashlands"
Please read the whole description!
CLEAN VERSION!!!

With this mod, I am aiming for an Exterior Developer role for the TR mod. Later, I may apply for Interior Development as well.

This is a TR showcase mod created by me in about 5 to 10 hours. It is a small Imperial town in the middle of the Ashlands of Vvardenfell. Since this is an exterior-only showcase, I have not added any interiors.

I have tried to keep the mod as vanilla looking as possible, so it fits the world of Morrowind, yet also made it seem a little bit new and different, like the settlements added by the TR mod by more or less "over cluttering" it. No poor combination of architecture either.

Every single unique NPC and item has an ID that begins with "Auchendale", for modding purposes. Example: "AuchendaleCommonerOne".

1st UPDATE (READ!!!):
-Added Chimneys
-Added new clutter
-Added a balcony
-Added more NPCs
-Added a smithery
-Added Map Marker
-Added "Illegal to sleep here"
-Added small windows to the 2 Towers
-Added a well instead of the Statue of Sheogorath
-Added some fences surrounding the tavern
-Removed Dunmer "architecture" and urns
-Removed the statue of Sheogorath (really bad and unprofessional move to add it in the first place)
-Removed not needed/used new IDs
-Removed the new, unneeded Auchendale Region
-Removed the ownership of the 2 crates and 3 clutter
-Removed new doors which had unique IDs
-Removed the "murder of Sillvicus Vinnici" dialogue since it was too much of a trouble and not necessary
-Fixed clipping/floating clutter
-Fixed the "wrong doors in the wrong door frames" bug
-Retextured roads
-Changed tavern's name
-Made all the plants on the town's stone road "grow" between the stones of the road only, for realism purposes
-Added a southern Guard Tower and several training dummies
-Cleaned everything, including the GMSTs

About Auchendale:
The Town of Auchendale started as a small Imperial settlement, when the Empire first put foot on Morrowind, after the Poet-Warrior Vivec made the pact with the Empire. In time, it grew bigger and bigger, attracting more and more people living in the poverty of the Ashlands, until it obtained the title of "town". It has a pocketful of houses, a cozy tavern, a fairly poor goods shop, a small smithery and two mighty guard barracks.

Story:
There is also a small murder story in the town of Auchendale. The husband of a commoner has been murdered in cold blood and thrown under the wooden bridge, at the end of the town. There are various clues around Auchendale which may lead you to the truth.
(REMOVED)

Location:
The town of Auchendale lies deep within the Ashlands of Vvardenfell, on a small hill.
-East of Caldera
-North of Suran

Bugs:
-No known bugs

Screenshots:
(outdated screenshots, removed several things, fixed several problems, added a southern guard tower, etc.)

Templar Tribe's picture
Templar Tribe
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Now this looks like a nice showcase! 

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Thank you! I really gave my best for this one. Still has some minor flaws though.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Bump.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Bump.

Templar Tribe's picture
Templar Tribe
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Please do not bump your topic. A reviewer wil get to it when they can and you will get a proper review.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Understood. But you also just bumped it. And I bumped it long BEFORE talking to a reviewer which will come and review it later. So yes.

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MinerMan60101
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To fix some of the bugs that you are having, in the Construction Set go to World -> Exterior Cell and there you can give your cell a name, set the region, and make it illegal to sleep there.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Ah, thanks for trying to help, but I already did that, to no avail.

Atrayonis's picture
Atrayonis
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When I told you you could bump your topic, I was pretty sure to tell you after a week without replies. Not every few hours.

Rot's picture
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@trifxn hi and thanks for your interest in joining -- I'd like to link you to the TR showcase guidelines which explain what to do to join but the handbook pages for those are messy at the moment;
in short people can get promoted to do Construction Set work for TR on three main categories: interiors (the inside of houses or dungeons), exteriors (the outside world - wilderness etc) and quests (includes writing &/or scripting). There aren't any interiors or quests in what you posted so the closest thing would be "exteriors". If that's what you're interested in, please wait for an exterior reviewer to come by -- aside from creating a "new" cell, I don't know what the requirements are for that.

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trifxn
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@Rot, thank you for the information, but I don't see the necessity of your comment. I stated very clearly that I am applying for Exterior Development.

@Atrayonis, apologies for that. I hope all these unrelated replies haven't turned my Showcase into a non review-able mess though.

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Rot
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Oh sorry about that, I skipped the main line of your post (!!). I think one of the requirements for exterior showcases is making an entirely new cell (&/or perhaps a cell with entirely remodelled landscape if it's an already existing place), but I'm not an exterior modder.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Hmmm...I hope you're wrong on that one. I'll just wait for an exterior reviewer and see.
 

Rats's picture
Rats
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Hi, trifxn, and welcome aboard!

I'd be happy to take a look at your showcase. To comment on what rot said, we did have a system of creating an exterior cell from scratch for showcases in the past, but now that I've viewed our current guidelines for exterior showcases I'm sure your town meets all the requirements for a showcase.

I'm a bit busy right now, but I will have your showcase reviewed next week.

I'm sorry to say that we don't have any exterior claims open at the moment. However, we do have the visual update for Aanthirin (formerly known as Thirr River Valley) coming up, with which we could definitely use some help!

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trifxn
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Hello there, and thank you for your reply!

Waiting until next week isn't a problem at all, really. I am glad somebody came around willing to review my Showcase! Also, before reviewing it, please read the whole description in case you haven't already. Thank you.

I also have another question, if possible. If I do get the role of Exterior Developer, will I later also be able to apply for other roles like Interior Development? It is a silly question, but a question nonetheless.

Rats's picture
Rats
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Yeah, sure. All roles are available!

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Bump. Just in case you forgot about this. Don't mind it.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Bump.

Rats's picture
Rats
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Yeah, sorry about the delay. I'm taking a look at the showcase right now.

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trifxn
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Great to hear!

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Rats
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Okay. This is not the most thorough review, but here's what I have to say after taking a look.

  • The most important thing is that the file's not clean. It has the classic set of dirty GMSTs, which should be cleansed with TESAME, but it also edits some other things needlessly. It edits the vanilla "ex_common_door_01". The file also edits the cells of Pelagiad, Caldera, Balmora and Caius Cosades' House as well as some exterior cells that aren't near the town. (Dialogue-wise it also has some unnecessary, empty dialogue Topics left over and it edits the vanilla "Background" topic.)
  • There's no need to create a unique ID for each individual door placed in the cell. One can use the vanilla doors. Some of the newly-created doors aren't used and should be removed from the file.
  • I know the town is bit of an anomaly (an Imperial settlement in the Ashlands with mostly Dunmer populace), but I would avoid adding the Dunmer "furn_de_overhang_0X"s and the urns in a town with Imperial architecture.
  • There's no Path Grid set. The town has NPCs so they should have paths. (Normally, Path Grid is made by the NPCer, so this is not that big of a thing in an exterior showcase)
  • There's no need to create a new Region for the town. The name of the cell can be edited by double-clicking on the cell name in the Cell View window. Doing so will also create a map marker for the town.

Some placement issues:

  • The two "ex_drystonewall_s_01"s between houses five and six aren't placed together properly (minor bleeding and caspering).
  • "urn_03_food" (43458, 19879, 1730) bleeds into the basket next to it. 
  • The bridge bleeds into the terrain rather too noticeably on the one end (ex_common_plat_cent 43209, 15508, 1642; to be precise).
  • "crate_01_armor_chitin" bleeds into the ground too much.

It appears that none of the new objects in town have any rotation on their X and Y axis, only on Z. Some rotation on the X and Y axis makes the items' rotation look more "organic" in a way. For example the rowboat (nice touch by the way, a rowboat in the desert! love it) could use some X and Y rotation. Several containers and items are owned by Berapli Ashumallit, a vanilla NPC. In a showcase is not advisable to just copy and paste stuff from vanilla cells. (It appears that the showcase deleted Ashumallit and some of her mabrigash friends)

The vertex coloring could be more precise, underneath every larger stone, tree, etc. More importantly, there should be visible darker shades underneath the buildings. It appears that all the vertex coloring in the cell is leftovers from the vanilla version of the cell. It also appears that very little landscape editing was done. That has some problems. For example the entrance with the southern entrance to the city, with the bridge, is located on a pretty steep
hill. Nothing that the player couldn't handle, but it looks a bit odd. More importantly, it's rather crucial that we see from the showcase that the exterior maker can handle editing the landscape -- right now there's little to go on.

The showcase has potential, but needs more work. I like the overall look of the cell; it's a neat little town. There's creativity there, but for a promotion-worthy showcase we need more concrete, technical things. To be precise: 1) make sure the file's clean (I recommend using TESAME) so it only edits the things it's supposed to edit, 2) edit the landscape (maybe add a road leading out of the town?), 3) edit vertex colors (darker shades under buildings, etc), 4) more advanced rotation of clutter (and maybe more clutter and other details in general -- for example, I noticed there aren't any chimneys in town).

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Thank you very much!

I understand what you are saying. I will get working on the mod as soon as I can and fix/add the things you mentioned.

Also as to why there is an imperial settlement in the Ashlands, with mostly Dunmer population, is written in the description. I guess I will add a small book about the town's lore, as well.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
Exterior Developer
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PLEASE READ!!!

Mod is almost completed. I fixed/added and removed next to everything you mentioned and even more. Added more clutter, removed Dunmer architecture, removed the Sheogorath statue and replaced it with a well, added new roads, changed the odd hill by editing the landmass, added chimneys, removed the named doors, fixed all new IDs I created that never got used, used some X,Y, and Z rotations, removed the new region and managed to create a map marker + make it illegal to sleep there, fixed all clippings you mentioned, added few sings that lead you to the town and am about to clean the mod!

Yet there are 2 things I need YOUR help with:

1-Guards are supposed to take you to Buckmoth Legion Fort near Ald-ruhn, since it makes sense, being in the Ashlands. But the Guards take you to the Moonmoth Legion Fort near Balmora. Is it because the town of Auchendale is closer to Balmora and that fort than it is to any other fort? If yes/no, is there a way to make the guards take you to the Ald-ruhn Legion Fort?

2-I can not seem to be able to give one of my NPCs a unique dialogue, which ONLY HE CAN HAVE. It is ONE dialogue regarding the murder in Auchendale. 1 NPC + 1 dialogue. (the dialogue has a unique ID and there are no requirements for the player to see it). It is also NOT a greeting. You must click on the option "murder of Silvinus Curio", which does not show up.

If you can help me with that...please do.

Thank you.

Rats's picture
Rats
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1) Yes, Auchendale is closer to Fort Moonmoth's Prison Marker, so that's why the guards take you there. Unfortunately, there's no feasible way around this: the GoToJail command that's used to send the player to jail calculates the distance automatically. Looking at the map, I'd say Buckmoth is not that far away though, so moving the town a few cells to the north and to the west would probably solve this, if you really want the player to end up in Buckmoth prison rather than Moonmoth. I think this is a relatively minor issue, though, so I would leave the whole thing as it is.

2) I take it that the problem is that the Topic is not showing? Before a Topic becomes available the player has to "know it" too. There are two ways to do this either by mentioning it in the dialogue (for example: "Greetings, %PCName. Say, have you heard of the murder of Silvinus Curio?") or by adding it with an AddTopic command. Giving the NPC in question this script should make the Topic appear:

begin T_ScNpc_Mw_AuchendaleTopic

short doOnce

if ( GetDistance, player < 600 )
     if ( doOnce == 0 )
            AddTopic, "murder of Silvinus Curio"
            set doOnce to 1
     endif
endif

end

Since this is an exterior showcase, NPCs aren't required, so you don't have to worry about them not working properly. We're only going to judge the exterior quality.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Thank you very much.

I will leave the location of the town as it is and will try to make the dialogue working. Even though the dialogue is not even required, I think it's the best occasion to get it working and finally learn how to do it right.

You will get the updated Showcase within the next hours, I hope.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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It seems like I need your help once again, one last time.

I now completely finished everything that needed to be done. Yet when trying to clean the mod with TESAME, every single cell, object, NPC, quest, script, door, activator and whatnot seems to disappear from the Construction Set. (don't worry, I still have a "dirty" version saved"). Everything disappears from the game itself and the CS.

(also please note that I am not that foolish to copy and paste someone's containers, as you mentioned. But I am foolish enough to remove 3 bandits from the location of the town which owned those items...yes)

...help?

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trifxn
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UPDATED!!!

With that being said, I think you can go on and review the mod once again. I will do the cleaning later if still necessary, but I do think the mod is completely finished, excluding the cleaning. So please, do review the dirty version :).

Atrayonis's picture
Atrayonis
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No, please clean it first.

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trifxn
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Then we will all have to wait a few more days until I find the time to do so. Not that it would be a problem, though.

trifxn's picture
trifxn
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Bump. Cleaned the mod. Read the whole description. Let the reviewing begin.

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