Truth be told, I have no idea how to use MWSE. I tried a while back and made some progress towards learning it (I had actually figured out the syntax!) but then I stopped scripting in it for a while... Now it's back to the confusion. I'm picking it back up, because I'm slowly and steadily working on a companion script that needs MWSE, but it's tough, since there aren't too many tutorials for it. My advice is to find the http://yacoby.silgrad.com/MW/Mods/ScriptingWithMWSE.htm, and go over the scripts in there just to get a handle on how the syntax translates to regular morrowind scripting syntax--that was the hardest part for me to wrap my head around it, iirc.

I'm actually going to do the same.

edit: not too sure how useful these will be to you, but here's a nice, concentrated number of help threads related to MWSE: http://www.fliggerty.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=24&sid=3daf34bcfdeea2722d96213e1477d906

As to the whole "Who uses MWSE? Who uses MGE?"-type questions, http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=942253&hl= by Fliggerty from last year might help (about time for another one maybe....)?

Personally, I think a census office should be rare. Conflicts with mods abound, and many areas of MW are actually quite unregulated despite best efforts. In fact, the only reason that sayda neen has an office is because that's where the boat stops, and to some extent the dialogue seems to hint that the empire is trying to get its fingers into the town to turn it into a port.

As to an inventory items check, I guess that means since I am a hoarder and pick up/sell everything not nailed down, I will not only pay more taxes, but be taxed on the stolen goods they shouldn't know I have? And then of course, since my inventory is full of cheap items at the start, rather than five beginner traveling items, then I pay more too.. as opposed to the guy next door that has his house full of jink blades and just carries a select few items before he goes home to dump them.

Then don't get me started on mod items.. "this is your transport ring, but it's worth 12k" Oh, and what if I wear the brotherhood armor? I mean they attack fast usually.. shame to waste it. That is a lot of money outta nowhere that I don't actually have.. it's very error prone.

If it is done by a check like that, then the thieves guild better be dang good.. heck, they better have a tax collector 'on the inside' or I'll go broke really soon. I'm not saying some money wasting is bad, but it would have to be really balanced out.

considering how easy it is to stumble on good equipment pretty early in the game, I'm not so sure the inventory check is a good thing.

I think there is a function ( perhaps only works in dialogue ) to check the value of what the pc is wearing, I'll have a quick look for that, unless anyone knows it off the top of their head?

Just going through the scripting on this now, there seems very little more for me to do on this apart from testing. Progress is being made.

This tax thing looks interesting. Even though I never felt any benefit or what from the Empire, a fair tax must be in a good order.

What my thinking though, taxing a player based on his/her residence or class level might be confusing, especially in environment like Morrowind. You can be a level 1 noble and get less taxed than level 50 farmer even when your personal properties are actually more. Also given tax based on resident. There be no indication that living in Vivec would be any more or less prosperous than Vos, to say.

I got idea about this taxation. Instead of fixed residence tax, why don't you go for income tax instead ? This will work for each time the player sells something to a merchant of some sort. A certain percentage of what money you gain after transaction can be deducted (automatically) by the merchant because he's a good citizen and tax-payer (even if you don't).

If you play a thief type tax-evader, you can negotiate beforehand with said merchant to evade (or reduce) this tax. You can make this with script attached to merchant in towns. Those with no allegiance to the Empire like Ashlander, Cammona Tong and others, don't have this taxation (though of course you might want to give another penalty by associating with them).

With this, you don't have to know where the character is all the time and what level he/she is. The player also won't be bothered with such scheduled taxation routine (which might be good if you're a craftsman in Balmora but not so good if you're a ranger in Molag Amur with no fixed income). This also avoid player to voraciously piling up money as soon as possible just to overcome the tax.

If given a fixed amount by definite period, you won't end up with any good conclusion about the amount to pay. If you're living off the land, you can be level 50 with just racks in your shoulder, yet if you continually buy ilnea's breath scrolls from Arille and sleep just over Seyda Neen waiting for some Dark Brotherhood sap to appear, you can end up with thousands before you're even level 2. Thus 1,000 gold or 5,000 gold won't be relevant anymore.

Regards

Thought I would check back in on this. Some good points are made, which I somehow looked past. Thank you guest. All valid points which I will discuss and hopefully it will help this mod.



I do not support the tax being auto deducted when you buy and sell from a merchant. It's not their duty to collect taxes, as is apparent by the story line of the dead tax collector and the few others found in other areas. It doesn't make much sense from a role play point of view either. There are many merchants in the game, and vary greatly, many of them are not even honest folk. I know this is taken care of by using a persuasion line like you suggested, but the way you present your idea would mean applying a script that affects every major buyer/seller in the game and adds dialogue to them. This could lead to conflicts, whereas new npcs that do the job are not only more lore friendly, but less likely to cause conflicts.

Perhaps there is a way to sort of keep a tally, but for taxes. If that could be done, you could still use these tax collectors as they would know what to charge. But even then, doing it by how much you buy or sell could mean applying scripts to the merchants. This is why a check of player's inventory was being discussed. It alone would have flaws, but would at least give an idea of how rich the player really is, no matter if they drop gear or not, and when combined with a living area gives it a role play value. It certainly needs refinement, so I am more than open to ideas, but doing it via the merchants alone might not work.



The ranger out in the middle of nowhere could be mistaken for dead very easily, as he lives "off the land." He'd be an unknown, bouncing from place to place and not staying in one place for long. He'd likely be living in an abandoned house or cave, and too few people would see him enough. His income would not matter, as he wouldn't be coming into town enough to be taxed. In theory few would even know how to find him.

This too needs some work, but from what was mentioned before, it was thought that if you stayed out of towns long enough, it would be thought you were dead. If this was expanded on, like adding a way to forge fake papers after a certain length of time so that your fines go away, a ranger would be feasible once again. Maybe you'd have to go on a repeatable quest for a corrupt taxman that kicks in on a timer of "last seen" or something.




This was a problem that was being worked on and why a script to check the player's inventory was being looked into. It was thought it would go active each time someone entered a new region or went through a door.. so say someone did have db armor, the amount due would reflect this. Sure they could drop the gear in a house for display, but to get it there, they have to walk through a door.. so the db armor tax price would have to be paid. But this would not get in the way of displaying your gear in homes, because as long as it was left there in the house for awhile, it would not count against you in the next tax session.

What the concern was is finding the right script to do this, and how to achieve an accurate "average" for taxation, while a person was dropping gear. If done wrong, a person could in theory, carry the gear for only a short way, drop it in a house, and then use it to pay their taxes in full another time when they should have been taxed a higher percentage, or be double taxed for an item. (because they moved it too often in a session or w/e)

If a script could be located and adjusted correctly, much of this would be solved.

I didn't notice the reply by boardguest in February. This project hasn't been forgotten but I just shelved it for a while. Once again Maholix, some very good suggesstions. I have a working lite version of this mod ready to go but I would like it to be a little more than that. I am going to read through the entire thread again sometime when I am more awake and see what happens next. The player definitely needs to be able to avoid 'tax hunters' whilst assumed dead but they won't get off lightly if they are once more discovered to be alive...

Yes, I too will be reviewing the thread soon, because there were some flaws that needed addressed, but also some decent ideas to expand on. Depending on which one of us gets to it first, I may post a summary so that we don't get repeat questions. (although my above post almost does the job) This mod a brilliant idea, and will be simple to play, but how it will be handled seems like a complexed issue. A summary may help new comers to thread start off on the same page.

It's good to see this mod is not forgotten because I really do feel that if done correctly, this could become a must have mod. I am positive that we aren't the only ones who thought "okay.. so uh, why don't I pay taxes? Everyone else does." Plus, there are so many out there looking for a good money waster mod. It's a somewhat neglected, but highly sought after kind of mod.

I would even like to see boardguest's input again if possible, because although I answered with things already discussed, it seems like they were paying attention and could also be helpful.

I want this mod just so I can butcher the collector's...

This option will also be available on the mod.

Thanks Maholix your help is appreciated.