I think TESNexus mirrors are a bit slow at updating replaced files, or the file is being cached somewhere along the line. I'll try a different naming scheme for each beta, starting now. You are doing it correctly otherwise.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26348

Changes:

• Arrow enchanting. Requires 4 soul points per item created.
  
• Permanent barter disposition mod. Barter disposition changes should be permanent.

Okay, using the Beta 7 patch from the previous link and the exact same test parameters, here's what happened:

1) The daedric darts now correctly enchanted, even though I only had 9.
2) The value of the ebony fire stars only increased by a total of 54 gold each, which is a MUCH better amount.
3) Unfortunately, when I enchanted the fire stars, I still got 400 of them. This yielded a total value increase of 21,600 gold.
4) I also tested this with orcish bolts and glass arrows to see if archery ammo has the same issue. The soul point ratio was 1:1 not 4:1 as expected.
5) However, both bolts and arrows increased in value when enchanted in proportion to the enchantment points on each.
6) Given the quantity, the value increase is still too high. However, if they had only produced 100 as I was expecting, I think the pricing is pretty well spot-on.

The enchantments I used on the various ammunition ranged from 1 to 9 EP and the increases in value were from 7 to 70 per item. Unless the base ammunition has a high enchant potential (high for ammo, that is), that means that a player loses value by converting a soul in a soul gem to ammunition. But if one considers the benefit of the ammo's increased usefulness instead of its resale value, that's still a very worthwhile process, and one that is genuinely helpful without being easily exploited. The cruel sparkarrow is the most common enchanted arrow in the game, and if one custom enchants an arrow just like it, the values will be very similar.

Permanent barter disposition. Hurray! I guess I gotta download the new beta now and give that a spin.



Menu resizes work just fine. Thank you so much.

Haven't run into any issues with toggle sneak yet, but I haven't tried any mod features that combine sneak with button presses. Will give that a try next.

Will also try messing around with bound weapons next. I tried to but it turned out the spell effects used in the spell was a place holder for a scripted spell.

No problems with NPCs casting zero cost spells. I'll make note next time to see if they are only casting racial powers or if they are casting normal spells too.

I haven't had any issues with the fog of war yet. Will keep playing with it.

Thanks for testing it and commenting on the values. Is there a permanent barter disposition option in your MCP now? If there isn't, you have a cached version of beta 6; give it a few hours and redownload it. If there is then I've done something stupid with the package script.

@Hrnchamd
The beta 7 download has the newest patches in a mcpatch folder within the full beta 6 mcpatch folder. the describe.txt in the first mcpatch folder is the newest version.

Derp. Thanks, tetchy.

Okay, here we go again, with less stupid... http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26348

Changes:

• Arrow enchanting. Requires 4 soul points per item created. Really.
  
• Permanent barter disposition mod. Barter disposition changes should be permanent. Merchants now also comment on your bodily odour.

If you've managed to get permanent barter disposition penalties working right, then I may need to go ahead and update my mod >.>

Beta 7 (second link)

-Arrow enchanting: The ratio worked perfectly. Enchanted all types of ammo without problems.

-Permanent barter disposition: Another excellent addition. Bartered with several merchants all over Vvardenfell. Now they hate me for arguing on the price too much. This is great! Successful bartering raise their dispo permanently too. Didn't check if they were using the new comments though.

Oddly enough, yes there was. It's strange how the incorrect packaging only seemed to affect one aspect of one of the patches while leaving the rest intact.

However, after removing the earlier beta_7 patch and applying the most recent one, the test results were perfect. The values per item were identical to the last test and the soul-point ratio worked as expected.

This is good, things are almost wrapped up. Just two more to go:

• Fog of war fix, need to confirm or deny if it's mostly fixed or causes more issues.
  
• Area effect multiplier. Area spells at zero radius need checking if their cost is the same as vanilla (near enchantment limits).

Interesting. ILevelupSpecializations should logically mean the same thing for skills that are part of specialization (fighter/mage/rogue) of a given class, I suppose.


I've tested it one more time just in case, and again I wasn't able to achieve any difference between HtH reach in human/werewolf form. My reach stayed the same with default values of 0.3 (default), 0.0001 and 20.

Thanks for everything else, it is very interesting and useful. But what about sneak and persuasion formulas and iAutoSpell[...] GMSTs? Are they too hard to find or recognize?

Another question: is there any way to make casting from an item (cast on use) to act like normal casting, e. g. to have animation sequence of hand-wavering and corresponding delay? It would solve an old problem of, for example, being able to cast fireballs from a ring with machinegun speed. Potions also need a limitation like this (ideally: the need to wait for an animation to play, while not being able to do anything else, before you can drink another bottle), though I can imagine that this would be much harder to incorporate.

For high power enchantments, it is obvious that the enchant-maker is no longer treating a radius of 0 as a radius of 1. Radius 0 spells no longer have any additional cost due to area effect. *fixed*



There's a bear in an ice cave in Solsheim that has eaten an adventurer and is strangely capable of using an enchanted ring that it swallowed. How would you envision this "hand-wavering" to work in such a case, or in any other case where an enchanted item is controlled by a creature?

The game is not very consistent. That one doesn't end in -attribute and I didn't see any effect on levelling. It may do nothing.


When I say easy, I mean it will take several hours. I'm working on persuasion, it's about 25 lines of (simple) formulae so far. The auto spell things are for autocalculated NPC spell lists and PC start spells. Other things will have to wait until 1.8 is done.

Same results as Toccatta on my side. Cost at 0 radius is the same as vanilla.

If I'm not mistaken, creatures and NPCs have different rules for using magic. There are GMSTs (fCombatDelayCreature, fCombatDelayNPC) that are responsible for delays between all attacks and casts.


Many thanks. I didn't mean to hurry you, I just wanted to know if you want to do it at all.

I'll test the fog of war one out here in a bit and get back to you.

Tested beta 7, and the new http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9227/mgescreenshot29.png. No more terrible colors! :goodjob: :goodjob: Out of curiosity, what was different about that dds that was making the game do that?

I think you've introduced a new bug, though, and I've narrowed it down to the very same menu fix. The "hit fader" thing now affects the entire screen. Instead of just the corners turning red, the entire screen fades red when hit. I think it's actually kinda cool, but it's a bug nonetheless. I tested three combinations: with all patches, with no patches, and with all patches except the menu fix. This only happened when the menu fix was enabled.

With menu fix:
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3218/mgescreenshot33.png http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/2548/mgescreenshot39.png and http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2148/mgescreenshot32.png.

Without menu fix:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2153/mgescreenshot52.png and http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6205/mgescreenshot48.png.

I also went running around the entire island testing the fog of war fix. I used the toggle borders console command so I could see exactly where the cell borders were, and then I tried various combinations, including crossing sharply, obliquely, perpendicularly, following along very near the cell boundary for several cells without actually crossing, and staying well away from the boundary. I also tested while flying, swimming, walking, and running, and in several different regions, including original game areas and mod-added regions such as Tamriel rebuilt.

The problem with such testing is that the error itself was intermittent. Saying that it isn't fixed is as simple as having the game lose track of your position once. But how does one know when it IS fixed? In any case, it's either fixed or significantly improved, because I wasn't able to get it to lose track of my position no matter what I tried.

Good thing you caught that. The game 'prefers' a different texture format for the main menu than the splash screens. It must be some kind of alpha format, since the hit fader is affected. None of it makes that much sense... I'll try to do something about that bug.

The biggest trigger for the bug appears to be getting in and out of fights.

You may be right. However, whenever I start a new game and sneak my way from Seyda Neen to Balmora along the coast without encountering a single fight, I've had this problem hit me several times along the way. Almost always near the wooden bridge across the mouth of the Odai river and again two or three times before reaching Balmora. Keep in mind that it occurs to a character that has never entered or exited a fight by that point. That's not to say you're wrong, but it doesn't match with my experience. For me, the fog of war bug hits just as often whether I'm fighting every step of the way or sneaking quietly and avoiding all combat.

However, I'll run that test again and try getting into combat several times to see if it makes a difference. I'll post again after I've had a chance to re-run that test.

[edit] Okay, after posting my comment about my experience being newly released from prison, I realized that it was the only place I could say for certain that I've encountered this bug in the same place at the same time every time I've played. So I started a new character and made my way from Seyda Neen to Balmora, and for the first time ever, the fog of war didn't lose track of my location. I also spent nearly thirty minutes wandering around like a drunken mud-crab using the same basic testing procedure as last time, only this time I was wearing a big pork chop around my neck (metaphorically speaking). I tried various combinations of attacking creatures and NPCs both near and far from the cell boundaries, straddling the cell boundary, catching the attention of a creature on the opposite side of a cell boundary, and initiating combat on one side of a cell boundary and finishing it on the other. I attacked and was attacked by slaughterfish while swimming under the water, kagouti on land, and cliffracers and musk-flies in the air. Sometimes I started combat, sometimes I let other creatures initiate it, and in a few instances, I just let creatures chase me for a while.

Only once during the thirty minute test did it even appear that the fog of war had lost track of me, but it was only the fact that the ground was vertex-painted black. Since I've never gone 30 minutes without having this bug appear somewhere along the way, I'm convinced it's fixed.

I feel so blind. >.< I hadn't played Morrowind in so long that I didn't realize this was happening for me as well! >.< My hit fader appears white though. (the white hitfader is probably some option I changed awhile back)

Sorry again, Hrnchamd. My internet connection died inexplicably the other day. They had to reset the regional server to fix it. I really must have terrible luck.


I know that it would cause problems with scripts. I did say it would wreak havoc after all. Indeed it is a feature, but a cool one. What do you mean by "Oblivion-esque" dialogue? Everything magically freezes during dialogue in Oblivion. One thing I dislike about Oblivion is that the game pauses while you pick locks. Even with the boring way of doing it, at least it's a bit more risky in Morrowind. It would be nice if time would continue to pass in menu mode.


I thought that is more what you meant. Is it possible to change the visual effect to one that is always visible, like Shield? Not that it should use the same effect, mind you. I've always thought it would be nice to know what spells are affecting the enemy. I don't think there is a very nice way to do it for such a game. Either you have icons floating over all the the NPCs, or a ton of visual effects. I would choose the visual effects, but it could be messy with too many.

Anyway, I think a warning in the patch description is sufficient. I know that not everyone reads documentation, and I don't wish flames and repetitive questions upon you, but if they don't read then they deserve to die in frustration. If they want to use mods at all, then they should read. Ancestral Guardian can always be toned down. Midgetalien made a mod to add a leveled Summon Ancestral Ghost power for Dunmer. Such a thing could outright replace the Sanctuary effect, making it more like the Oblivion version of the power if one wishes.

I agree that it's not fun to count in your head, but I still think it's an improvement. If this were real, we'd probably have to do some counting anyway.


Personally, I wouldn't worry about mod compatibility if it were my project. If it were to break some mod that changes magic advancement, I'm sure new ones could be made. I could settle for a mod, though.


I see. Oh well.


=( I'm sure someone out there would be willing to rework the meshes. It's beyond my current capabilities though.
Even though high detailed shadows are usable to me now, Fargoth's shadow doesn't have a head, and some others are missing other things.

I'm to assume that you know nothing of the strange compass warping I mentioned before then?

Anyway, I'll get to testing.

Edit: I'm still having the same problems regarding the bound weapons and 0 cost spells. They just don't work for me, and I don't understand it. Even with an .exe that was never touched by the patch. Permanent barter disposition is working though.

Edit 2: I'm using the Game of the Year edition of Morrowind, if it would matter. I doubt it would help, but if you need any information about my computer, just tell me.

Scripts don't pause in menu mode to my knowledge. Most use a check to determine if the player's in menu mode. If they are, the script stops executing that frame. Just look at Book Rotate; if scripts paused in menu mode, whenever you put down a book, it wouldn't change position.

I think you might be missing the point. It isn't that the script pauses in menu mode, but rather that the script expects the game to be paused in menu mode. Currently, the game does pause in menu mode even if scripts do not. Objects do not move out of range or change position during that time, nor do NPCs, creatures, or items cross cell boundaries. Any script which relies on a static situation during menu mode may fail if menu mode is changed to a dynamic situation. How badly the script fails depends on exactly why it's expecting the situation to be static, but could result in anything from a minor and nearly undetectable error to something catastrophic like a total machine lock-down (consider an irresolvable while-loop as one possible worst-case scenario).

While it's certainly possible to write a script that does move things during menu mode, it's been an accepted modding convention for the past 8 years to avoid doing so, and most scripts rightly expect that objects won't be moving during that state.