Interior Rules and Guidelines (As of June 2014)

You can claim interiors in this forum.

Moderators: Seneca37, Lead Developers

Locked
User avatar
Aeven
Lead Developer
Posts: 1964
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:43 pm
Location: Groningen

Interior Rules and Guidelines (As of June 2014)

Post by Aeven »

Interior Rules and Guidelines

General Guidelines
  • ID Creation
    All IDs must start from TR_ prefix. Following this should be the normal prefix of what the item is (key, cont, bk, etc.) After this comes the mX (where X is the number of the Map said interior is on) Next is the claim's ID, finished by a VERY short descriptor.
    Example: TR_key_m1-100_PrivateDoor

    Cells should be named as follows:
    TR_i#-###
    i#-### is the claims browser ID.
    Example: TR_i3-180

    When Claiming
    It's often a good idea to lay out a basic or detailed plan for the interior, or the interior may not be granted. If you mention 'oh I'll make the fort good and cool', you have less likelihood of granting than if you went into more detail and used better English. If a claim description already has a detailed plan, stick to it. If there's a reason you think you shouldn't, post this when claiming and come up with an alternative. It can then be decided if your alternative is worth doing, or if you should stay to the original plan.

    Make sure to download the exterior your interior resides in; this is very important! Check it out from several different angles to size up and fit your interior properly. For example, no triangular shaped interiors in a small rectangular exterior.

    Lore and the Master Plan
    Be sure to be tasteful and true to the spirit of Morrowind. Keep the Master Plan in mind. A consistency needs to be there to create a good interior that feels like a proper part of the world.

    Snap Grid
    Make sure your interior building tiles are aligned with snap grid. To do this, click on the button in your CS that looks like a coordinate plane. You can also access it via 'File > Preferences...'. Now try moving your tiles. As you can see, they move a very even number of points, and quite rigidly, with no weird decimal numbers. The snap grid works for all tiles and some objects. However, in cases such as object placement, it's better to manually place things. Interiors turned in without snap grid used may be revoked immediately in the event that the modder is no longer with TR. Another thing to note is that you may have to change the setting of snap grid (only accessible via 'File > Preferences' method) to a smaller number for better accuracy when placing certain tilesets. The biggest offender of weird numbers in this case is the Imperial Fort tileset.

    Lighting
    Make sure to check your lighting to make sure it matches that of Bethesda interiors of the same style and size. The default lighting settings are a little too bright, and should be toned down to your tastes. (Please, test this in-game!) This can be deviated from, but only in special cases.

    Also, when placing lights, such as lamps, in an interior, be sure to keep their radius in mind.

    Northmarker
    The Northmarker is essential, and should always be the first thing you place in your cell. It tells the interior in which direction North lies, so that the in-game mini-map will work properly. This is a good reason to check out the claim's exterior. If your claim has multiple interior cells, make sure all cells have a Northmarker and that they are all consistent with each other.

    The Northmarker can be found under 'Statics', and is listed simply as 'Northmarker'. The arrow points, obviously, towards the North. Rotate it to define this North, based on the exterior.

    "Cookie Cutter" Interiors
    The Reviewers will not accept "cookie cutter" interiors. In other words, do not copy and paste entire shelves and such from other interiors. This greatly cuts down on the uniqueness of Tamriel Rebuilt. A person who has played Morrowind a few times can easily look at a shelf and instantly remember seeing it. Also, please do not copy individual items from prefabricated interiors either. The ownership stays with them, and has to be removed from each item one by one. Please click and drag items fresh from the object menus. It's bad practice to copy items.

    Lead and Senior Developers will revoke any interiors that have copied materials with or without notifying the Developer. We will not revoke if we cannot prove that there is copied material, however proving so tends to be quite easy, so please don't try and slip anything by us.

    Cleaning
    Make sure your plug-in is clean before you turn it in. Use the program TESAME to do this.

    Don't link to the exterior
    Please do not link your interiors to an exterior. This will be done at a later stage! If you have more than one interior cell in a claim, you may link the interiors together, but please do not make doors teleporting to the exterior.
    Please do not add NPCs/creatures to your interior! Those will be added later.

    Playability
    It's important to test your interior claim. For one thing, often while working with the Construction Set, you may not notice the scale in relation to the player, or bump into collision issues where the player cannot properly access areas.

    Review
    Luckily for the Developer, any errors found in the Reviewing Board are fixed there as well, so all you have to do is make the interior, and we'll fix any errors you make! This is not an excuse for sloppy work though, and if the errors are too numerous, the claim will be sent back for further work.

    If an interior claim is sent back 3 times due to errors, it is REVOKED.

    If a Developer experiences this 3 times, they will be sent back to the Showcase.


    This likely won't be an issue, but it's a thing to keep in mind.
List of Abbreviations
  • Below is a list of commonly used abbreviations when creating new IDs. These should be used whenever applicable.
[spoiler]
Repair -- repair
Activator -- active, ac, act
Furniture -- furn
Exterior -- ex
Interior -- in
Terrain -- terrain
Magic event -- VFX
Armor (body part) -- a
Skin (body part) -- b_n
Clothing (body part) -- c
Creature -- cr
Apparatus -- apparatus
Light -- light, l
Lock pick -- pick
Probe -- probe
dunmer -- de
imperial -- imp
Common -- com
Rich -- r
Poor -- p
Intermediate -- pr, rm
Book -- bk
Scroll -- sc
Writ -- writ
Blood Moon -- bm
Tribunal -- tr
Fighter’s guilt -- fg
Mage’s guild -- mg
hlaalu -- hh
redoran -- hr
telvanni -- ht
indoril -- ind
dres -- drs
Imperial legion -- il
morag tong -- mt
Thief’s guild -- tg
Temple -- tt
Vampire -- va
Potion -- p[/spoiler]

Guide on style mixing
  • This small guide will tell what imperial, Dunmer, and Nordic/Imperial style items should only be used in particular spots, and what can be safely ignored. Imperial things can generally be identified with the word "imperial" in their name, or by having "com" or "imp" in their ID. Nordic things usually have "nordic" in their name. Dunmeri things typically have "de" in their name.

    The following lists are to be followed in most cases, and it should generally be obvious when you can deviate from them.

    Items to watch out for:
    • Furniture
    • Lights
    • Armor
    • Weapons
    • Tapestries
    • Mead
    • Books
    • Clothing
    • Containers
    • Chests
    • Silverware
    • Glassware


    Items of which the style can generally be ignored:
    • Drinks other than mead
    • Some houseware objects (a lot of the decoration things)
    • Redware
    • Rugs
    • Bottles
    Other faction based things to watch out for:
    • Indoril(MH) display stands/planters, etc.
    • Great house books.
    • Imperial Guild based books (Mages Guild books for ex.)
    • Ashlander/Nordic tribal clothing.
    • 6th House things
    • Make sure the right Great House armor is in the right place.
    Illegal items:
    These items are considered illegal, and should only be used sparingly and where appropriate.
    • Dwemer items
    • Skooma and Skooma pipes
    • Moonsugar
    A final reminder on the matter: watch out for quest-specific items. These are unique items that should not be used.


Final comments
  • Have fun building your claim! Creativity is at the heart of our project, and enjoying world building is a sure way to create the best work we can.
Locked