Version 1.3 Released! Auto-Quicksave bugs fixed, "array subscript" error is no more. Thank you for your patience. See http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1203380-relz-automw-improved-morrowind-enhanced-new-autosave-system-and-more/page__view__findpost__p__20094064 for details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ScxhEdE3U

https://sites.google.com/site/automorrowind/home/quickstart-guide

https://sites.google.com/site/automorrowind/home/faq

https://sites.google.com/site/automorrowind/

Hey everyone! Today I finally get to take the lid off of a project that has been 6+ months in the making, and I'm glad to be able to put it in your hands. It's called AutoMW, an (open source!) utility for Morrowind.

The big problems I aimed to solve with this project are

• the twitchy pace of combat,
  
• create an Auto-save system that makes sense (and that you can configure)
  
• make Morrowind Enhanced a more organic, automatic experience

A sore point with Morrowind has always been the combat system, and while Aerelorn's Morrowind Enhanced went a (very) long way towards making a more interesting experience, I felt there was still a lot of room for improvement. Since MWE is closed-source, I decided to write something that would interact with Morrowind and MWE from the outside. I hope someone comes up with a cool idea and is able to implement it through this toolset.


AutoMW works off of a modular concept, allowing users to enable and disable the features they want or don't want. And each module included with AutoMW is highly configurable, so you can tailor each one to your own personal experience.

Currently, AutoMW ships with 3 modules already installed (and more already in the making):

Auto-Trance: This module automates Morrowind Enhanced v1.6, and puts the Trance function of Combat Enhanced on autopilot. You can set it to enter trance when you enter combat, and exit it when you leave combat (or put away your weapon!). It also enables Cinematic Slowdown: only activates for a few seconds when certain combos are performed, for a dramatic, bullet-time-like effect. No button pressing.

Auto-Quicksave: Implements a better auto-saving system. Uses the Quicksave slot to allow you to save on an interval (say, every 10 minutes), or save every cell change. It won't automatically save while you're in combat, by default.

Auto-Play: A dirt-simple module that simply presses the "Play" button on Morrowind's default launcher. A hassle saver for Steam users where this launcher is unskippable.

On top of this, AutoMW uses a Unified Launcher to let you launch all of your common utilities with a single click. FPS Optimizer, MWE, and MWSE Launcher all launch alongside Morrowind.

Where To Get It

Download from:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39030

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Utilities.Detail&id=83

Install Instructions (VERY IMPORTANT):

You MUST have the following installed:

*AutoIT3, an automation / scripting engine for Windows. (https://sites.google.com/site/automorrowind/home/faq#TOC-I-have-to-install-AutoIt-Why-) You can grab http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/downloads/. (Choose Full Install, and all default options!).

*MWSE (either the MWSE Launcher or MGE Internal)

*Morrowind Enhanced v1.6 (older versions unsupported). Not a requirement, but very recommended as Auto-Trance requires it.


To install, just unzip the package anywhere on your computer. Launch AutoMW.exe and you're good to go! A short tutorial will help you set up AutoMW on the first launch.

ATTENTION Mod Authors

AutoMW utilizes a plugin-like modules system you can use to write new modules for AutoMW! If you're interested in developing a module for AutoMW, head to the https://sites.google.com/site/automorrowind/home/development of the website.

Personal Note

This is the biggest thing I've probably ever worked on, so please, tell me what you think. It's my way of giving back to a community that has given me so much over the years. I welcome all bug reports, complaints, and gripes

Thanks:

Hrnchamd: For fantastic testing, and MCP / MGE XE / legible fonts.

Aerelorn: For Morrowind Enhanced!

NZdawghaus: For the Splash Resource Pack.

GhanBuriGhan, Yacoby, melian, et al.: For writing "Morrowind Scripting for Dummies" (this book is targeted at my demographic)

Yacoby (again): For "Scripting With MWSE". The pipe example was unbelievably helpful.

Have fun!

Woww great hard works put in it!
thanks for sharing!

Is it AutoMW compatible with multi Morrowind's instalaltion and MGE XE, MCP?

Thanks!

Multi-Morrowind Installation: I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with Multi-Morrowind Installs. (I'll be honest, I've had my head in the sand throughout this whole development) EDIT: After having read the sticky on the topic, I'm going to tenatively say yes, you should be able to point the launcher at a single version of Morrowind. If it would be useful for folks to be able to select from different versions of Morrowind from AutoMW, I'll see if it's possible to add that in.

MGE XE and MCP: Yes AutoMW was developed on a Steam version of Morrowind using both MGE XE and MCP. It's also been tested under Win7 and WinXP.

Nice to see this done, as for something thats a bit simpler I did for myself I made a batch file that I could double click on and launch both FPS Optimizer and MWSE at the same time. I suppose I could have included MW in it as well.
To see how I did it:

I like the fact it can autolaunch stuff, but I would be even more impressed if it also stopped MWE from corrupting save files.

wow this looks nice!
alredy installed

The Launcher is really a small part of what AutoMW offers. Actual automation of Morrowind and assorted utilities during runtime is the real end-game here. But I agree with you, if all you really need is something that can launch everything at once, then a Batch file might be the best solution for you (if you're comfortable writing them).

I wasn't even aware that MWE corrupted save files. (shows how much I know) I've been looking into making Auto-Quicksave more robust, and that involves savegame edits, so maybe this is something I could look at down the line. Is there any documentation / posts / threads on what exactly MWE is doing to the savegames to break them?

Topic changed to better reflect what this tool does (thanks mods!)

I like this very much; when it works for me it's quite fun, I like the effect on combat and the autosaving is extremely handy... it saves right when I'm about to push the button, it's great. But it doesn't quite work all the time. It will work, and then savegames, cleaned with Wrye Mash and perfectly willing to load if AutoMW isn't being used, will crash on load. (Or before they load.) And then I'll play a bit without it, save, and then try AutoMW again, and it works. And then after a couple sessions the same thing happens again. Doesn't give me a specific error message, just the generic Windows has crashed box. I really don't know what's going on, but I'd like to get it to work all the time.

Thank you Chesko.I used to have MWE launch MWSE and FPS Optimizer, and the latter launch Morrowind. AutoMW is a much better solution.

A question: how does one set Wrye Mash as the mod manager in AutoMW? (Wrye Mash being a Python command as opposed to a standalone executable.)

Damn that's cool!
I have to try it

The only bad thing that it initialises and closes bit slowly,

Update v1.1: I have updated Auto-Quicksave to version 1.1, please check the download links at the top. It addresses Amberfire's mentioned issue of games failing to load with AutoMW's Auto-Quicksave enabled. Stability should be greatly improved when trying to load save games (from ~10% success rate when loading to maybe 95% (on my system at least, ymmv)). If you have AutoMW 1.0 already, just download the Auto-Quicksave module update. If not, AutoMW v1.1 includes this update.

The issue seems to be two-fold; MWSE tries to attempt a string comparison with a null value, and the plugin is sending a "save" command in the first few frames. I'm pretty sure I've fixed the first one, but the second one occasionally crops up (tries to save immediately on load). Even then, this doesn't always result in a CTD.

Give this a try and let me know if you see any other issues.


It seems like this is almost entirely related to writing to the on-screen log too slowly and not program execution. This should be relatively trivial to speed up. This will be the next thing I look at.

I've been using the http://www.fliggerty.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3646, which is compiled into an .exe. However, you should be able to get it to run by selecting the .py file, and then adding "python" to the front of the path. Example:

python "C:\mash.py"

Let me know if that works for you. If you can't run python files with "python" from the command line, you may need to check your python installation.

Wow, this little gem came as a surprise!

Quite nifty tool there, Kudos for all the hard work!

Any news of the progress for the introduction's video?

"Slowly but surely"

@ Chesko

Adding "python" to the path didn't work, so I just switched to Wrye Mash Standalone.
Everything is working fine now.

I tried downloading the fix but I still had the same problem: with the Auto-Quicksave, games were still tetchy about loading, so I just removed it. Everything else works fine though.

Can you send me any files ending in .log in the Modules\Auto-Quicksave\ directory to chesko.tesmod@gmail.com? I have a feeling what the problem is but I'd like to make sure. I'd like to put the permanent fix for this problem in AutoMW 1.2. If you completely uninstalled the module though, don't worry about it.

v1.2 will also include support for installing .esp plugins required by modules for you (optionally), so that's one less thing you'll have to deal with when you do a module upgrade.

I sent it, hope that helps you.

It's been awhile since I've had some time to work on this project, but I thought I would post the issues I'm currently working and hope to have resolved "soon" (maybe by this weekend).

• Game crashes when attempting to load a savegame that was using AutoQuicksave - Working - This issue is priority 1 for me to fix, and has to do with how MWSE handles null strings. What's essentially happening is when you load a savegame, it tries to compare two variables, "Last cell you were in", and "this cell". "This cell" has a value, but "last cell" is null and when it attempts to compare them, the game crashes. I'm working on a solution to this.
  
• Faster Start-Up / Shut Down - Working - This should be trivial to fix. I know what the problem is, I just need to dive in and add an option for it.
  
• "Array subscript badly formatted" error - Working - I know where the problem is, but I don't know exactly what is causing it. It happens infrequently and only to some users. I need to investigate what causes this in AutoIT more.
  
• "A required plugin is not enabled" even when the module that uses it is disabled - Fixed - This has already been fixed for the next version.
  
• If AutoMW crashes, several AutoIT.exe processes are left running - Fixed - I figured out how to solve this by attaching the programming equivalent of an explosive collar tied to a heartrate monitor to the main process. If the main process dies for any reason, this monitor script will kill all AutoIT.exe processes, and then kill itself, preventing processes from lingering around in memory after a crash. (Not that AutoMW should be crashing in the first place... issue 3 is the primary source of crashes it seems)

>with the Auto-Quicksave, games were still tetchy about loading, so I just removed it.

I haven't tried AutoMW, but AFAIK quicksaving in Morrowind has always been known to produce unreliable save files. It is recommend to use the regular save feature when you create a save file that you want to load later.

Saving periodically (e.g. every few minutes) is also recommended as it somehow flushes scripts and keeps your current session from crashing. For this purpose, either saving or quicksaving suffices.

After a long college hiatus, I have finally updated this utility to version 1.3. You can download it from either of the links in the OP.

At this point, I would call the software thoroughly tested and mature. I have playtested this version of AutoMW for over 90 hours (a full playthrough!), and did not experience crashing related to its features.

Important Note: I no longer detect your Quicksave key. It is now hardcoded to be F5, the default. The "array subscript" error listed above was related to a bad registry read I was attempting, which I am no longer doing. Hopefully this does not affect many users.


Changelog:
1. All Auto-Quicksave related crashing should be eliminated. Make sure to play with a savegame that does not have AutoMW_AutoQuicksave.esp in the load order, or you will continue to experience problems!
2. There is a QuickLaunch option in the Config now that should hopefully get the program to start up / shut down faster.
3. The "array subscript badly formatted" error should be eliminated. I am no longer performing a registry check, which was causing the problem.
4. Various stability and bug fixes.

Enjoy!

-Chesko

fus ro dah!

Sweet. O.O

I'd also like to point out that during my entire playthrough, I never experienced any save-game corruption related to using MWE 1.6. Everything seems fine in that regard. Perhaps this issue was related to an older version of MWE, perhaps 1.21.