Less Generic NPC Project

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:25 am

Many, if not most of us will have experianced the great Less Generic NPC Project: Seyda Neen. I don't know how many people put it together, but my guess is between three and five. Seyda Neen is a little town, yet this mod adds so much to the game, just imagine what we could do AS A FORUM.

If we take maybe one town each week. A group of eight or nine of us set about doing it, each with six or seven NPCs. Somebody who understands the TES kit gets emailed the responses as an attachment for Microsoft Word, and puts them in the game, and once a week we release another town with less Generic NPC Dialouge. I'd suggest doing 1 Canton of Vivec at a time. I'm more than happy to contribute, although I'd suck with the TES kit. Anybody else interested?

By the end we could have dialouge unique to every NPC in built up areas of Morrowind!

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:44 am

The problem is finding someone who is - sorry - stupid enough to do all the work. When I'm willing to do such a mod, then I'll do it based on my own ideas. And I am willing to do it - but I hate the dialogue-system in the construction-set. Nevertheless I'm going to have another look at it. But right now I'm too stressed out with school and such.

But don't get me wrong - the idea is good. It's just my personal view...

arno_v · Post by **arno_v** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:10 am

Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know how to do it. How many people do know how to make that kind of stuf?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:28 am

How about if people contributed their different skills and it was done collectively? For example, I know I could write up dialogue, but I have no ability with the technical side of things.

arno_v · Post by **arno_v** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:19 am

Good point, writing a dialog is something everyone with a creative mind can do.

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:41 am

Yes, but making the technical part isn't as much fun as making the dialogs...

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:47 am

I'm sure it isn't as much fun, but given that we all have different talents and that this would require a huge amount of work, it makes sense IMO to pool resources.

Besides, time-permitting, I'd also be willing to edit dialogue for grammar and spelling.

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:12 am

Originally posted by dragon wench
Besides, time-permitting, I'd also be willing to edit dialogue for grammar and spelling.

Hey, are you referring to anything/one special with that?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:33 am

Originally posted by Monolith
Hey, are you referring to anything/one special with that?

lol!

Nobody in particular

I'm also quite aware that there is often an expectation for mods to be written in English, which is not everybody's first language. This has always seemed a little unfair to me because I'm sure there are all kinds of people out there who are really skilled at modding but are less confident of their English abilities.

And well, there are some people whose mother tongue is English but they seem to lack experience in writing

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:44 am

hum...there are some mods in German, but I don't have a German version of Morrowind. I don't know if it is possible to make with the English Version mods for the German version...but translating shouldn't be a problem.

But having someone who can correct grammar and spelling is quite good...not that *I* need it. Others.

blake · Post by **blake** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:57 am

That has to be the one of the single greatest ideas for a mod ever, of course would you want quests to be attached to these new npcs? Or just have each one have there own background?

I personally hate the dialogue system in te Cs not that it's hard to learn but if you mess up it can thoroughly break your game...

I would be very interested in doing the technical part just to be a part of it. It wouldn't be that hard, given everyone was writing a background for every npc, it would just require you to plugin it into its respective place. Sadly I don't know how to do this but hopefully soon I will learn.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:05 am

One point to keep in mind: be sure to check out all the other Seyda Need mods around! It's the most popular modding zone in MW, so a lot of people add NPCs, buildings, quests, etc. You don't want to conflict with 'em, or your mod will get a rep for conflicts and won't be used.

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:46 am

Originally posted by arno_v
Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know how to do it. How many people do know how to make that kind of stuf?

Thats what I was suggesting, I wasn't asking somebody to do it all on thier own. And all I'm talking about is editing the dialouge, no changes to quests, or added quests. I'd be willing to do a lot of the writing, if we are going to do this I'd like to try it out on a small town first, just to make sure we can do it. Maybe Khuul? There are only about 20 NPC's there, so thats 5 people, doing 4 NPC's each. I'll be one of those five, so we need four more people to write the dialouge and one person to try and put it into the game. @Blake, if you could do that, it would be fantastic.

We'd want to have a unique response to 'my trade' 'lastest rumours' 'little advice' 'little secret' 'background' 'someone in particular' 'something in particular' and anthing else that is generic.

btw if somebody could go to Khuul and count the NPC's and jot down thier names and where abouts they are that would be cool too.

DM

blake · Post by **blake** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:19 am

Seldus Nerendus-silt strider guy dark elf
next to silt strider

Rivame Samandas-commoner dark elf
wandering around

Svadstar-commoner dark elf
wandering around

Talmeni drethan-shipmaster dark elf
next to her ship

Aldi-commoner nord
in her shack

Brurid-smuggler nord
in his shack

Endris Dilmyn-commoner dark elf
in her shack/ she is a sleeper

Helga-commoner nord
in her shack

Miron Garer-commoner dark elf
in his shack

Nelmyne Andules-commoner dark elf
in her shack

----in thongar's tradehouse----

Shotherra-assassin khajiit

Ondi-Knight in the imperial legion nord

Thongar-merchant nord

arno_v · Post by **arno_v** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:32 pm

Good job blake.
@DM - I'll be hapy to write some dialogs, and with Dragon Wench checking my spelling it will al be good

blake · Post by **blake** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:25 pm

http://members.cox.net/srikandi/dialoguetut/intro.htm

i have found a site with a pretty thorough dialogue tutorial for those who wouldnt mind putting the dialogue in as well as making it up, i figure ill be able to plug it in but if someone wants to divide the work between me and them that would be grand....

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:27 pm

Okay, lets try to divide up some of the dialouge. @Blake, for convienance it might be better to have one .esm file for each town, but that doesn't mean that you'll have to do it all on your own, you could send the file back and forth via email, although that would mean that us dialouge creators would have to send our work to different places. Your help is much appricaited, and I will try to learn how to use the editor to help you out just as soon as I can, although I don't have an awful lot of free time at the moment (I work in Politics and there are elections on June the 10th in the UK).

I'd like to have a bash at these four characters over the next day or so. If you can post your email address, or send it to me in a PM, I'd like to send you a set of dialouge for one of the characters so you can try to put it in game, just to see the results. The characters are:

Seldus Nerendus-silt strider guy dark elf
next to silt strider

Rivame Samandas-commoner dark elf
wandering around

Svadstar-commoner dark elf
wandering around

Talmeni drethan-shipmaster dark elf
next to her ship

Hope to hear from you soon.

DM

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:33 pm

My Morrowind disk is hiding somewhere, so I opened the ESP consturction kit just to try and work some stuff out, such as the dialouge that would be needed (ie what needs replacing) and it looks (don't quote me) quite straight forward... I'll be back with an update in a bit.

blake · Post by **blake** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:33 pm

blakefarthing@hotmail.com

uhm, label it with something morrowind related otherwise ill probably delete it. The dialogue system is way easier than i thought it was, so plugging it all in wont be a problem but there are alot of npcs so if anyone with as much as free time as me (i'm a student and it is summer) would like to help i wouldnt mind but one city a week should be cake...

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:21 pm

I'll leave a 'taster' of something I've been doing tonight for the Silt Strider guy, Seldus Nerendus :

When asked about my trade he tells you the following:

I am a caravaner, I’ve been once since I was a child, I used to ride with my father. He used to operate the Sadrith Mora – Vivec route, but he was killed when the waters in Zafibel Bay became too dangerous and his mount collapsed only a few weeks after I got my licence to operate one myself, I was working down in Gnisis when it happened. The agency closed that route forever in his honour.

Its good pay if slightly dull work. Some of the land routes are more interesting, but the law says we should travel by the waterways whenever possible, its kinder on the beasts you see. One day I hope to be posted to Ald’Ruhn or Balmora.