Why not just send the temple/burial services out there after a while... might be fun.

I could do that no problem but I think it is just an over complication... why delete the npcs if I don't have to. Atm I have scripted the events so they are not unbalanceing. The simple solutions are often the best imo.

This, to me is the best solution. Having clothes and gear disappear from slain combatants is, to me, pretty immersion breaking. This:
And particularly this:
Would just be a giant hand of videogame-yness reaching out from my monitor and slapping me round the face. We're not on Vvardenfell anymore, Toto. If the player wants to loot the corpses then let them. As, I think it was, Princess Stomper's said: You can't cheat in a single player game.

I really like the way patrols are shaping up. Another idea is spawning random bandit groups in the wilderness. So, say, a creature levelled list contains a leader NPC who is scripted with a 100% chance to spawn a lackey (mage, melee figher, ranged fighter etc etc), the lackeys are in their own levelled list (not sure if that would work in a script, might have to define the lackeys explicitly in the script). Each lackey has a scipt that ruins when they're instantiated with, say, a 40% chance to spawn another lackey. _{Could end up with large groups that way, might need to play with the %s.} Then, have a guard leader spawned a random distance and direction away from the bandit leader, again with their own randomly generated posse. So, the PC enters the cell, NPC bandit mob spawned, heroic NPC guard patrol spawns, they spot each other... Fight!

Well if you wanted to leave the bodies there and didn't want them to be able to loot is it possible to lock the bodies?
That sounds dumb though. I like the suggestion of the guy above me however.
That would seem (making them teleport away) a little far fetched for morrowind.

Yes, I agree to 100% =)

I agree with you I think I will just do my best to keep it balanced on my end and then leave the rest up to the player. Due to the large amount of scripting involved I am not using leveled lists for these patrols, I am making each patrol npc and their script one at a time. Each npc will have a generic name (ie Hlaalu Patrol Leader or Bandit ) I can use leveled items on the npc's to create variety and randomness in clothes and weapons etc. Now that I have all my script templates working I can make as many patrols and npc encounters as I want with a wide variety of situations so bandits spawning with posse and guards attacking is a certainty. In fact I have started making the actual mod now (the videos I posted earlier were just from a proof of concept mod I made) So far I have one patrol near balmora working which is attacked by bandits every 5 days. So far it all respawns and resets perfectly. I know having the bandits attacking every 5 days sounds abit mechanical but at the end of the day how many of you keep track of the day of the month it is? also just because they have been spawned doesn't mean you will see the fight... or even the bodies. its about being in the right place at the right time I am really enjoying making these patrols one at a time. Hopefully the care and time I am putting into placement and makeup of the npcs will show when this gets released.

Damn I'm fast at you tubing =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQKA16gLYG0

Love the new conflict with the necromancer. Good to see an archer, a magic user and a warrior duking it out =)

Awesome work.

Wow! Awesomeness! How'd you get a hold of that anyway, huh?

What can I say the other community I'd say I'm most active in is Youtube. I'm a subscriber to Starfires videos so I know when he updates =) There's another video as well with a fight with some bandits.

Well, await official word from Starfire himself before hyping vids to much, hehe.

I havn't had much of a chance to work on this the last few day as I am looking for a job atm so progress is a little slow. I have started making the proper addon now tho and so far two patrols near Balmora are completed along with the odd attack on both of them. I thought I would post some videos so people can see what the mod will look like. Also feedback is always uselfull as it far easier to make any changes now rather than days down the line

This first video just shows the first Hlaalu patrol as you will see it most days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDuKRDz7o1E

This video shows the second Hlaalu patrol that I have added north of Balmora.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8m4DIxmmc

These three videos shows the player coming stumbling into a battle between a group of bandits and the first Hlaalu patrol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NHuOOeEq0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQy_t_dyTkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyO-5g_Xdu0

These two videos show the player finding the second Hlaalu patrol engaged in combat with a Necromancer who fancied himself some guards for undead servants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQKA16gLYG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Ix-v9kQjA

(Sorry the video quality isn't very good but I think you can still get the idea)

Hopefully over the weekend I will have more time to add loads of new patrols and lots of different npc vs npc combat events.

edit: wow you are fast lol. I thought I had posted in the wrong thread for a sec when I saw two posts from someone else above my update

I'm a fan, or supposed to be so I try to act like one.

:drool:

Well then you will be glad to know I managed to find a few hours to work on this tonight and I have added two imperial legion patrols around Caldera and also because this addon is more than just patrols I have added my first duel. It is between a Battlemage and a Warrior. Here is the video if you havn't already watched it on youtube before I post lol I will post videos of the legion patrols tomoz.

Fight!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghsg1NkNuyg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ZF4HFmUy0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doyxtJ-YXiw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9_Cif2Bn2E

videos are abit jumpy due to fraps being abit iffy atm.

It may be a problem with my Morrowind setup, but I think I've found a bug. In Ebonheart, on the left side of the Dragon Statue, 2 or 3 NPCs spawn at the same time, on the same spawn point. Take a look:

http://img44.imageshack.us/i/mgescreenshot7.jpg/

I've checked their IDs ingame (throguh console) and they start with "SF".

Hi there. Thanks for reporting this. Have you upgraded from an earlier version of my mod to a more recent version on the same save or is the first time you have downloaded it.

Hi, I think I've upgraded your mod on the same save. I will try it with a new game, and will reply if it still happens. I have tried to repair my savegame with Wyre Mash, though. It seems it was ineffective against this problem.

Edit: Tried it with a new game. I don't know whether this is normal but this time, they don't spawn at all. I have waited for two days, checking them at different hours, but they just didn't spawn. Anyway, it's better this way; multi-spawning breaks the immersion.

What none of my npcs spawn? Or just that npc in ebonheart? That npc spawn point there is a rare one and will only spawn like 10% of the time so that would be why you havn't seen her/him again.

No, only that specific NPC wasn't spawning. It's what it's supposed to be then, thank you for your help

Whoo! Fun! I was sure the mage was going down as I saw her take many hits. No idea what was happening to the warrior, though clearly he was taking damage somehow. The videos are a bit dark. No idea if that was just due to the weather, or more to do with Fraps, or what. Regardless. Looking good!

BTW, I was in Gnarr Mok last night and just caught a glimpse of a mage teleporting away. Had to be one of the coolest things I ever saw. Such a little thing, yet such an impact. The world really is starting to feel more alive!

okay, it takes some of my fps but not that bad as mca does. it was not really slow but i recognized a lower fps in vos and gnisis.

i can stand it

really good pi.

Those look really impressive. :goodjob:

The only thing (literally) I missed when I finally gave up on Oblivion, was the sense of things going on around you which you got from sometimes coming across NPCs fighting each other (or creatures), or finding dead NPCs in the road & wondering what killed them, or coming across a guard patrol & deciding to follow them back to wherever. It would really add a ton of immersion to see these sort of events in MW.

Also, having patrols & NPCs spawning away from the towns could open up new role play possibilities too. For example, if you wanted to play a radical, anti-Imperial Dunmer, you'd actually be able to attack Imperial or Hlaalu patrols in the wilderness, for political reasons or in order to restock with weapons & armour, etc (since going into towns to do this wouldn't make much sense if you had a large bounty). Which would be another reason for not magically vanishing weapons & armour from dead NPCs I guess?

Btw, are the attacking NPCs placed in game every 5 days or spawned in some other way? (Sorry if that ques. doesn't even make sense, I'm just curious how this actually works .... ^_^)

Well atm because I cannot use leveled lists for these added npcs I use the days of the month to enable and diasble them spawning. So the bandits attack every 5 days because thats how I have set it... but the battlemage and the warrior in the video only spawn once every month. So in answer to your question atm for every npc I add I am currently deciding on what days I want them appear. I supose I could randomise the whole process by using a set random function on each day of the month. However I do it in the end I want the end result to feel natural. Hmm I hadn't thought about dead bodies... obviously you may come across dead bodies left from the npc vs npc fights. But I like the idea of just adding some dead npcs to roads and the wilderness, perhaps with subtle hints as to how they died.

Personally, I'd say the more random things are the more unpredictable (& therefore natural) they'll probably feel. I don't see any reason why bandit (or other) NPCs couldn't spawn 2 or 3 days running, and then not at all for a couple of weeks, if the process was randomised ... the point being, if you can't predict when you might see something, then you'll always be on the lookout, because you won't know what to expect.

Adding dead NPCs would also be cool I think. It would add to the sense of the world going on around you, whether you were there or not. For example, if you occasionally (very occasionally) saw the bodies of dead NPCs -- maybe Dissident Priests or whatever -- floating in the canols around Vivec, that would give the impression that the Ordinator's had been busy, and make the whole Temple Inquisition thing seem more real.

While mostly true, guards and other people who work with the stuff probably has a well planned day of work ahead of them so they would be far more predicable. I think a blend of both predictable and unpredictable are great. Like guards are predictable but the bandits are not. Well, maybe some are hehe.

Also Starfire, I did see those new videos like in a minute or so when they went up o_O I was awake all night complaining that internet is boring because nothing ever happens. haha. Didn't mention it here tho because it's better if you get to do the announcements yourself

Like coming across dead adventurers in the dungeons of MW. (BTW, are those vanilla? or is one of my mods adding them?) Which reminds me, one of the things I enjoyed in OB was occasionally coming across a live adventurer in the dungeons (was it always an orc?). How hard would something like that be to add? It would be interesting... perhaps with the ability to work together? *shrugs*

Well I think perhaps I will try randomising anything that is not a patrol. I will do it at the end tho after I have added all the npcs seeing as knowing when the npcs will spawn makes testing alot easier Hmm I start work on the ordinator patrols tonight and I really like the idea of adding some patrols escourting dissidents and having their bodies floating in the cannals... the only thing I would have to work out is how the stop the dissadent from attacking the player when it is in follow mode with the ordinator... probally easily done via detecting whether the lead npc is under attack and then telling the npc to either stop combat or flee or fight the ordinator. Btw in the making of this addon I have made a number of changes to the main file also which I have yet to release.

I have reduced the spawn percentage chance of the various classes (cities seemed to be getting a tad too busy for my likeing).
I have removed the wild commoners as they were proving to be abit buggy (I plan to add them again in a future hostile npc addon)
added a script to the npcs that resets their AI package every hour to prevent ai going abit nuts and walking into walls (thanks to adul for this)
removed the ashlander shirts from the egg farmers leveled list and made is so they spawn with shirts more often.

It has also come to my attention that sometimes the traders spawn without their guar or the guar without the trader... I will figure out why and fix this before I release.

.