[REL] Raym's Absolutely Aleatory Accoutrements

Post » Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:07 am

...or AAA, for short. :P
It has been one hell of pain to finish this, but I'm really happy the first release of this mod is done!
This mod removes all clothes (rings, amulets, belts and magical clothes NOT included) from NPCs in Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, replacing them with random lists.
There are a fair number of different lists for quality (common, expensive, etc.) and "style" (Great Houses, Ashlanders tribes, Imperial, etc.), but I hope to refine this again and again, to add even more.
As is, this mod it's "just" a way to add variety.
When you start a new game, NPCs will wear different stuff. Also, Nords will wear mostly Bloodmoon clothing, and Tribunal stuff is now found everywhere in the game and not just in Mournhold.
But the reason I made it, is that this mod makes it possible to add modded clothing into the game, seamlessy.
Now you can just add the new clothes from a mod into these lists, and they will appear on NPCs. Also, they will appear into shops and loot: I've added containers for each trader who sells clothing, and reworked random lists a bit.
Above all, this is my gift to an incredible modding community that has kept a game I love enjoyable for 12 years, now. I hope you will like it. ^_^
Everything I release is free for anyone to mod further, in any way they see fit. This is especially true for AAA.
http://www.wolflore.net/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=2050#p23633
Readme:
Spoiler
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The Elder Scrolls III
MORROWIND
Raym's Absolutely Aleatory Accoutrements
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Index:
1. Description
2. The Lists
3. Installation
4. Known Issues
5. Credits and Usage
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DESCRIPTION
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This mod removes clothes from ALL NPCs in Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, and replaces them with random lists that will generate those items randomly.
These random lists are carefully thought out and assigned to each NPC so that they get clothes appropriate for them: there are different lists for "generic" Ashlanders, each of the Ashlander tribes, the three Great Houses, Imperial style clothes, Nord clothes, and Vampires.
And of course, each category has been broken down into the four different qualities in the game: Common, Expensive, Extravagant and Exquisite.
I've been *very* careful to preserve the "role" of individual NPCs in the game: I've used the UESP Wiki extensively to double check this, and assigned the lists accordingly.
This also ensures that no quest are broken by this mod. And that naked Nords stay naked Nords. :P
Also, this mod only removes "visible" clothing. Amulets, belts, rings and the like are not affected.
Magical clothing isn't replaced either, for the time being.
NPC trading in clothes have also been given an "extra supply" of them.
That is, I've added a container to each of these traders, with a number of my levelled lists in it. The lists in the container are made to fit the "style" the trader sells.
The container in itself is placed a looong way from the confines of the cell where the NPC is; so, even if you use a mod that modify interiors, there should be no problem.
And finally, as a last touch, vanilla random lists are populated with my own lists too, so there will be variety in loot, too!
So, you wonder... why do such a painfully long and boring job on about a thousand NPCs?
Well, in its present, basic form, this mod simply adds more variety to the NPCs.
You will meet NPCs with different clothes and they will also actually have money in their pockets, giving a thief character a reason to pick pockets. They will wear clothes appearing in Tribunal, too, and Nord NPCs may wear Bloodmoon clothing (as may do NPCs from other races in Solstheim).
But mostly, this mod is meant as a tool for modders and players who like to tweak their game.
I made this mod with mostly one use in mind: adding clothing made by modders into the game, seamlessy.
All you have to do is place the new items into the lists, and when you start a new game, NPCs will be wearing them; and the shops will sell the new clothes to you (and you will find them in loot), with no need for a "special" shop added to the game world.
This mod is actually the first step in a project of mine, aiming at totally replacing the equipment of NPCs in the game with levelled lists.
Is a very ambitious idea, and I don't know if I will ever be able to do it... maybe someone else will pick it up, though!
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THE LISTS
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Since the mod is also intended to be used as a "platform" for further modding, I'll try to document the lists I used the best I can.
Each list name begins with "_aaa".
The rest should be pretty much self-explanatory, but just in case:
"ash" means this list is for "generic" Ashlanders. Like the ones you see in the middle of nowhere.
"asha", "ashe", "ashu", "ashz" are for Ashlanders of the four tribes: Ahemmusa, Erabenimsun, Urshilaku and Zainab, respectively.
"bar" is for those shirtless barbarians and prisoners.
"gon" is for gondoleers.
"hla", "red", "tel" are for House Hlaalu, House Redoran and House Telvanni, respectively.
"imp" is Imperial style clothes.
"nor" is for Nord clothes from Bloodmoon.
"pau" is for paupers.
"sla" is for slaves.
"vam" is for Vampires. I thought they may be cool dressed with something dark, just to roll with the stereotype. :P
"trade" is added to the containers in shops. These lists are empty, to be filled with modded clothing.
The name for the clothes themselves is pretty obvious. There are just a few special cases.
List marked with a "V" (for "vanilla") at the end are assigned to NPCs that wear armor.
Since most modded clothing doesn't play well with armor, this lists should be populated only with items that don't have this problem, like vanilla clothes. Otherwise, the results in game may be... odd.
Robe lists marked with a "%" at the end only have a 10% chance of spawning an item. If one doesn't spawn, the NPC will be dressed with shirt and pants/skirt; otherwise, the robe will cover them.
NPCs that are expected to spawn with robes (like most mages and priests) use a different list, instead.
Skirt lists are only given to female NPCs (but for a few exceptions; the Imperial Legion skirt comes to mind).
Skirt lists have both skirts and pants in them, so a female can still spawn with pants.
Gloves lists spawn a special type of items: these are gloves I made that occupy the left glove slot but make it look like the character is wearing a glove on the right hand too.
This is just a workaround to the problem of randomly spawning matched pairs of gloves. The engine won't allow it, otherwise.
The gloves pairs use the same meshes and textures used in vanilla. Value, Enchantment and Weight are doubled to reflect that the item rapresents a pair.
"misc" lists are empty lists.
They are added to NPCs in case a modder want to add some special item. I put them here thinking about Danae "Hold it!" mod, but they could be useful for something else too, no doubt.
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INSTALLATION
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Just drop the plugin in your "Morrowind/Data Files" directory, check it so the game loads it, and you're done.
The .ESM is meant to be used by players. To avoid any potential conflicts, I suggest you load it immediately after Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon.
The .ESP is for modders to modify as they may see fit.
Only use one of the two.
You will need to start a new game for the mod to work. I've not tested adding this mod to an existing save: maybe it will simply not work, or maybe flaming vampire guars from Oblivion will devour your immortal soul. No idea, but just in case: don't do it.
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KNOWN ISSUES
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The mod needs a new game for it to work.
If you are using other mods that change NPCs (including head replacers), make sure that AAA loads just after Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon in your load list.
In this way, any changes other mods do to some NPCs will overwrite those made by my mod. The NPCs modified by other mods won't enjoy the modifications made by AAA, but you'll be sure that AAA won't break quests or scripts by other mods.
Too bad this is the most I can do: the way Morrowind engine works means that the mod that loads last will overwrite any changes did by other mods to the same NPC it modifies (only exception is dialogue).
If you use some mod which modifies a large number of NPCs, the only way to make it work with AAA would be to merge the two.
I don't use any mod of this kind so, sorry, but don't count on me to do that for you. You are free to go and do it yourself, however.
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CREDITS AND USAGE
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Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) site, for the wealth of information on the various NPCs.
As always, my thanks to the people at Wolflore (http://www.wolflore.net/) for advice, support and generally being awesome.
Everyone has my permission to use this mod and modify, integrate, rework it in any way they like. This is my general stance on usage for my mods, and AAA in particular has been purposefully made to be a "platform" for other modders to use.
No need to ask me for permission, but I'd love to know what you do with this. ;)

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Undisclosed Desires
 
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Post » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:58 am

I think this is definitely the best part of this. This is a fantastic idea, Raym.

Maybe you could create a list for hla_noble, imp_noble, and hla_common, imp_common. That sort of thing. Especially when thinking about incorporating resources, there is a large variation of rich looking garments and poor garb. If I just threw some "royal" regalia on "Imp" and it put it on a commoner, it'd be out of place.

edit: spelling

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Franko AlVarado
 
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Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:49 pm

Post » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:38 pm

There's a good number of lists, actually: common, expensive, extravagant, exquisite. Also, these are "mixed" with the various styles of clothing: Imperial Expensive for example is different.

The fact is, Morrowind already had a number of clothing styles meant to show cultural difference: for example, did you know that the three Great Houses have a few of common and extravagant shirts and robes that identify their peculiar style?

Too bad, it seems that whoever equipped NPCs didn't follow those styles too strictly. Clothing meant for a certain faction tend to appear anywhere, instead.

That said, you are right that there's a lot of room for further improvement, here.

I'd like to release other versions in the future, adding more types of lists. Right now, I wanted to release it and maybe make a plugin that actually adds something from other mods. :)

As for the concept, possibilities are enormous.

The same could be done for weapons, armor and just about everything one could think of.

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Inol Wakhid
 
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Post » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:09 am

Wow. Looks exceptionally cool :thumbsup:

I seem to remember that some clothing items were designed to only be worn by, for e.g., House Hlaalu characters. I guess from the levelled lists you've created and your readme that you took this kind of thing into account?

Also, in your "Known Issues" section you could make reference to TESTool's Merged Objects function as a way to get this mod to play nicely with other mods which affect the game's NPCs.
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Janine Rose
 
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