Situationals...

Post » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:18 am

I thought the same thing. Then I found the mod "Import Business" by Psycholex, in which you can place orders of different types of items and get them a few days after. Didn't have the chance to test it yet though.


Let me know how it works out, sounds interesting.
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Brandi Norton
 
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Post » Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:39 am

I can't think of anything right now, but the idea of this mod is freaking awesome and will add so much to the Morrowind experience!
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Sarah Kim
 
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Post » Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:05 pm

I've heard it mentioned before on the forums, and I imagine it would be a pain to setup, but I think it would be great if more NPCs started interacting with you rather than you with them all the time. Even better would be if they bug you about things you bug other NPCs about. The basic way I am envisioning it is to do some spawn points in various locations (cities, taverns, stores, inns, wilderness, etc) like MCA or Starfire's NPC Additions, but have these NPCs set to force greet the PC when they approach them. Some different types of NPCs that could be included to keep things diverse, with a nice considerable chance to have no one spawn in these locations as well (each location should probably get a half dozen NPCs or so to keep things from getting immediately repetitive). As for things that could be discussed in these:

Begging: The NPC is poor and begging the PC for money (granted the PC doesn't do this a lot, but can enough).
Rumors: The NPC asks the PC about the latest rumors. Could possibly set this up so the player can give some different responses based on different conditions currently in the game.
Services: Similar to the rumors option, but could be specific to locations so the PC can guide the NPC around town.
Advice: Possibly just offer up a few different options for the PC to be able to give out to the NPC asking for the assistance.
Freelancer: Now the supposed "great cover class" of Morrowind can exist - Mercs offering their services during a set time period for money. Very basic companions, non-leveling, but basic warp and such and companion share.

There are probably a number of other things that could be done with this as well, but it could go a long way to making the player feel more "at home" running around doing these same actions with NPCs all the time if NPCs occasionally do it to them too.

As I mentioned though, it should be carefully balanced so that it doesn't happen all the time (as that would spoil the effect by making it less random and too standard, plus it could get annoying if it happens too often).
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chinadoll
 
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Post » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:35 pm

I'm interested in disease shaders. Most of them as pk said, can be done. For water type animations, I think I have an idea, which is half procedural-half prerendered. :chaos:

@linora,
I have this idea, for having a war cry button and an excuse me button. Stock sound files can be used for them and pressing could make random things, fleeing weak character and getting into dialog with NPCs. Also I think quest givers should start dialog first when you return from a mission. For example, I take a quest from Hrisskar but never returned. It would be awesome if he poked me when I am passing close to him. I hate standing next to an NPC and watching them playing idle animations. That will add an urgency to situations.

My other idea is AI. You know the dialog window. I looked there and realized there are many conditions and a result box with voice greetings. Now when player walks around these voice greets happens, I think we should use them to create AI. When player walks by them, these conditions can activate certain results which will change mood of NPCs and surrounding situations. I find that dialog and result feature very powerful. Very small things that change and stay will make the Morrowind experience even more unique. The random stuff happening in Morrowind which we all love can be extended to a more chaotic but controlled state.

I will write more about these with giving examples later.
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Riky Carrasco
 
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Post » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:48 am

I've heard it mentioned before on the forums, and I imagine it would be a pain to setup, but I think it would be great if more NPCs started interacting with you rather than you with them all the time. Even better would be if they bug you about things you bug other NPCs about. The basic way I am envisioning it is to do some spawn points in various locations (cities, taverns, stores, inns, wilderness, etc) like MCA or Starfire's NPC Additions, but have these NPCs set to force greet the PC when they approach them. Some different types of NPCs that could be included to keep things diverse, with a nice considerable chance to have no one spawn in these locations as well (each location should probably get a half dozen NPCs or so to keep things from getting immediately repetitive). As for things that could be discussed in these:

Begging: The NPC is poor and begging the PC for money (granted the PC doesn't do this a lot, but can enough).
Rumors: The NPC asks the PC about the latest rumors. Could possibly set this up so the player can give some different responses based on different conditions currently in the game.
Services: Similar to the rumors option, but could be specific to locations so the PC can guide the NPC around town.
Advice: Possibly just offer up a few different options for the PC to be able to give out to the NPC asking for the assistance.
Freelancer: Now the supposed "great cover class" of Morrowind can exist - Mercs offering their services during a set time period for money. Very basic companions, non-leveling, but basic warp and such and companion share.

There are probably a number of other things that could be done with this as well, but it could go a long way to making the player feel more "at home" running around doing these same actions with NPCs all the time if NPCs occasionally do it to them too.

As I mentioned though, it should be carefully balanced so that it doesn't happen all the time (as that would spoil the effect by making it less random and too standard, plus it could get annoying if it happens too often).


IMHO, spawn points and specific NPCs would not be the best way to do this - there will still be a glaring difference between "talk to me" NPCs and "vanilla" NPCs. There is a way to implement this feature (and a plethora of others) to vanilla NPCs and still manage to keep it "generic."
The way to do this is in the dialogue. In the voice files, you can attach a script to an entry that might be spoken (on greeting) by random, and launches a script instead. This script will automatically apply to that NPC and can simply launch a ForceGreeting command. Use the script to apply some temporary conditions to use as variables, then have dialogue entries in Greeting 1 for whatever the NPC wants to say.
You can use the script and dialogue filtering to assure only certain kinds of generic NPCs open dialogue. When an NPC fires a script on themselves from a voice clip, then that NPC is subject to almost the entire spectrum of Morrowind code. This opens seemingly limitless opportunities.

--Edit -Vtastek has the right idea. Didn't see that till now. :P
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Talitha Kukk
 
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Post » Sun Jun 13, 2010 7:41 pm

Seems my post in that thread brought some notice to this thread. :P

Wow, though. I had no idea the dialogue/voice greeting system could be used in such a powerful way. This is exactly what is necessary for a lot of what I want to do with NPCs. I think I'll start studying up on all this dialogue stuff after I finish up my Lockbashing mod. xD

@Red Eye:

Great ideas! I don't want to add generic NPCs though, since I'm not a fan of them myself. I would like to implement similar things in such a way that it effects vanilla NPCs as well as those added by mods. So long as they and the PC fit the requirements, such as only Poor Non-Dunmer Commoners being the only NPCs that beg the PC for gold. So anyone could add an NPC that fits into this circumstance, and have them potentially beg for gold. (And if this was actually implemented, only rarely and perhaps only when the PC has better clothing than the NPC.)

@Vtastek:

Quest givers initiating dialog would be difficult because it would likely require seperate work for each quest in the game. I'll see if it's possible in a way that works universally. Perhaps I just don't understand the dialogue system well enough yet, though. xD

Definitely post your examples when you get a chance. :D

@Casey Tucker:

Indeed. So many things could be done. Once I get a better understanding of how this all will works by playing around with it in the construction set I'm gonna work on a finding way to make this streamlined as possible for all circumstances. Many thanks for the detailed explanation. ^_^
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Dewayne Quattlebaum
 
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Post » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:55 am

@Red Eye:

Great ideas! I don't want to add generic NPCs though, since I'm not a fan of them myself. I would like to implement similar things in such a way that it effects vanilla NPCs as well as those added by mods. So long as they and the PC fit the requirements, such as only Poor Non-Dunmer Commoners being the only NPCs that beg the PC for gold. So anyone could add an NPC that fits into this circumstance, and have them potentially beg for gold. (And if this was actually implemented, only rarely and perhaps only when the PC has better clothing than the NPC.)

That's really more in tune with my thoughts than what I posted, I believe - just didn't know quite how to express it :)

Yea, this type of system would be fantastic I think, and I really look forward to seeing what you might be able to pull off with it.
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Kat Stewart
 
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