Ready for testers! Still need to fix scripts but I would like to know how my orphanage runs under other configurations. Please PM me if you're interested in testing and I'll send the link. I don't want to make a public release until I know everything is working right. You will probably have issues with the follow scripts (post adoption) and scheduling scripts (pre-adoption), though everything else should be functional. The scheduling scripts "work sometimes and it's arbitrary when it does" and the follow script "doesn't work at all, though the adopted child will follow you, just not at your speed."

I'd offer to test but Morrowind isn't working well for me right now. Good luck with the project, though.

Well geez, can you tell us anything about it? Like where at it's located and how many children you can adopt. I'd like to see screenshots of the orphanage too, exterior and interior.

I'd be willing to test, but more info first would be nice...

Shoulds like a great idea though :goodjob:

http://rapidshare.com/files/417960151/orp-alpha.zip.html

For those who are interested in helping to test the orphanage. Children of Morrowind is required! Please back up your saves if you plan to run this version as it is NOT the release!

Just go to Ebonheart, across the north bridge from the dragon statue, and you will see.

Will it require the main "Morrowind Kids" mod? Because I have NEVER gotten that to work, EVER.

Your link seems to broken Mordigant, at least for me. I would love to test it if I could :hehe:





Did you make sure to use the Bsareg, included with it, to update the Morrowind ini, AVanguard?

http://rapidshare.com/files/418162460/orp-alpha.zip.html

Try it now. Should work. Yes, this requires the main Children of Morrowind mod.

I understand wanting your mod to be a surprise, but please do tell us a little more than that CoM is required and approximately where the building is located.

Some things I'd like to know:

Is the mod for vanilla MW or does it require one or both of the expansions?
What version of Children of Morrowind is required, who is the author of that mod, and where can it be downloaded?
What is the purpose of the orphanage?
What age children are adoptable and what companion scripts are they or will they be based on?
Did you alter the landscape?
How many files are in the download?

Even in a WIP or Beta thread, it would be nice of you to give us some information about your mod and its purpose. Screenshots would be fantastic, too.

This sounds like a good idea, Mordigant, but I can tell you from experience that you should not leave your beta testers in the dark when it comes to what your mod does or how it should work. Doing so will lead to frustration and missed bugs. If you don't want to publicly showcase your mod while it's in beta (which is also a bad idea in my opinion. Why would I download a mod that I don't know what it does?), you shouldn't post links to a download and only send them via PMs or e-mail. I can't say if this is a good or bad mod because you're being intentionally obscure about what it is and what it does. I wish you luck with this, but I think you need to rethink how you ask for beta testers.

When I read the topic title, I assumed that this thread was meant to be a home for wayward WIPs >.>

I have no idea. It's been a while. I've tried messing with it a few times in the past and I never got it.

You can manually add the bsa files by adding the line: Archive 2=MW_Children_1_0.bsa underneath the [Archives] section. It should look something like this:

[Archives]Archive 0=Tribunal.bsaArchive 1=Bloodmoon.bsaArchive 2=MW_Children_1_0.bsa

Note that if you already have an archive 2, use the next greatest number (3, 4, etc.) and add CoM to the end of the list.

Sorry guys about the obscurity of detail. I have been very busy the last few days with the Jewish holiday and some travel. I will try to answer some questions.


Is the mod for vanilla MW or does it require one or both of the expansions?

The orphanage mod is dependent on Children of Morrowind, which itself is dependent on both expansions, so both expansions plus COM are needed to run this.


What version of Children of Morrowind is required, who is the author of that mod, and where can it be downloaded?

Children of Morrowind was created by Emma, and can be found at the link below. I think it's version 2.

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/kids.htm


What is the purpose of the orphanage?

The purpose of the orphanage is to be able to adopt kids, which was a feature missing from the COM release and partially implemented in Emma's Morrowind Family also dependent on the COM and found at the above site. This mod adds variety to the amount and type of children that are adoptable.


What age children are adoptable and what companion scripts are they or will they be based on?

There are six teenagers and twelve younger kids, for a total of nine boys and nine girls. All races are represented. They are based on the regular COM scheduling scripts that make kids disappear at night, until they are adopted when companion follow scripts take over, I think I based those on Morrowind Family. I think the script bugs are from when I tried to combine the two.


Did you alter the landscape?

The only changes I made were adding one building just north of Ebonheart (cross the bridge from the dock), adding some of the kids playing outside, and moving two of the regular COM kids closer to the bridge so they would not be running around orphanage territory. It also adds a global script and one global variable. There was a minor dialog change for Duke Vedam Dren, but only in the greeting.


How many files are in the download?

The download includes the ESP, readme, and a music folder with two files required to make the music script run.


If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask! I will be looking at the script again tomorrow, to try and figure out where the problem is. The script bug seems to have been reduced in my latest version (yesterday's link). The main bug is some of the kids don't disappear when they're supposed to, and don't reappear when they are, and it's random. Most kids behave properly. Companion follow improvement scripting does not seem to work yet at all, though they still do the default follow.

Thanks so much for clarifying. This looks like the kind of mod I've been wanting for a while! I will certainly try it out!

EDIT: The download at rapidshare worked just fine for me.

It will conflict with the final, so play carefully and back up your save first. And most importantly, have fun!

I've taken a look at it Mordigant. Do you want me to pm you my comments or are you okay with me posting them here?

Overall I think it's good so far

Also, I just want to make sure you got permission from Emma to make a mod using CoM. It's something she asked for in the CoM readme

Permission has been granted from Emma, though she would like to try it before release. I'm happy to receive all comments here or in the PM, depending on what you see appropriate.

Okie dokie. Here's my list:

bug: The 'come with me' dialog needs to be filtered for just your NPCs and then just the children if that's what's intended. I haven't checked every NPC in the game, but now all of the advlts at the orphanage, as well as all of my other companions, have the 'come with me' dialog topic. It also shows up before the child agrees to the adoption and if you click that before clicking adoption, the child will follow, but won't acknowledge the adoption or take the license from you.

In addition, the default dialog for children includes references to grandmother, parents, and such. Some is appropriate, because the children would remember things they did with their parents, but it's kind of weird for an orphan to tell me he/she is supposed to be in the kitchen helping grandmother. Like they are not quite right in the head, children of the corn comes to mind. I also think that when their disposition is up and you've adopted them, they can maybe address the PC with a little more familiarity?

Good thing: The children get the 'companion share' option and follow appropriately when 'come with me' is selected. They also stop following when they should and the two stopfollow options work as apparently intended.

bugs: the orphanage is too crowded or the building is too small for the PC to navigate easily, especially when all the children are in there.
The stairwell isn't complete and clips both the outer wall as well as the rug.
The orc guard effectively blocks the PC from getting back down the stairs if he manages to get up them in the first place.
The Tutor and the Cook are barefoot, also, I find it odd that there is a cook with no kitchen or cooking pot over the fire.

Good thing: All the advlts behave as expected. I like their greetings, especially after all the children have been adopted. May I suggest the greetings be filtered for that cell? It might be fun if you gave the option to hire them to take care of the children, wherever the PC lives, they'll need caretakers.

Questions, observations, and suggestions: What is the purpose of the "dormitory door"? Are you planning to incorporate that into the finished mod, or will it always be a door to nowhere? Personally, I would have expected each child to have some belongings to collect, even if it's just their personal stash of colored cloth. Every child has something they keep hidden in their bedrooms. The Duke would have made sure they at least had a change of clothes and a toy each to keep.

Given that the Orphanage is a pet project of Duke Dren, I would not expect it to close after all the children are adopted. Maybe it can be disabled and re-enabled at a later date, perhaps with children that are not adoptable; or maybe all of your orphans might not be available at the same time. I just can't see a place as big as Morrowind not generating orphans regularly.

I'm not a scripter, so I can't offer any suggestions on how to improve those; all I know is I experienced no problems associated with your scripts. As far as I could tell, the children disabled and enabled just fine.

BTW, I'm already having a blast with this.

This wasn't happening for me. I'll look into it.




This issue has been bugging me too. However, there is nothing I can do about, unless I add a variable to every COM child in the game. I'm also not very creative when it comes to dialogue, as writing anything has never been one of my skills.




I was so glad this works. The implementation of this feature was copied from another mod.




It is meant to be implied that the lower level of the orphanage was the playing and visiting area, and the inaccessible upper level was for living including dormitories and kitchen. I am aware that the building appears smallish, but I am new to modding and that was what I could do with my level of experience. It's much easier to navigate at night, when the kids are sleeping. I am also aware of the aesthetical issues with the stairs, but if they weren't there the kids would have nowhere to sleep. I'll add shoes to the barefoots- sometimes when I use robes I accidentally forget this detail.




The staff are tied by their nature to life at the orphanage. If I made them hireable while kids were still in the orphanage, there would be nobody to take care of the kids. I thought about this before posting the test version.




I am not planning to make the second floor, though if it didn't exist the kids would have nowhere to sleep. I'll probably add a toy or book to each of their inventories before release.




I suppose it is possible to make the player wait a certain amount of time after each adoption before it can be done again, though with the barter screen being a hard-coded interface I would have to change the whole mechanism of getting an adoption license. This is one issue therefore that will not be addressed. I put lots of thought into what would happen after the kids were gone, but with my limitations it was better to give the staff new dialogue than to try to create something that was very dynamic in nature. The orphanage doesn't ever really "close", which means from a "lore" perspective more kids could come later (after PC retirement), just not in the mod.




The scheduling script seems to have mostly resolved itself when I worked out the music issue. On my game there were one or two kids that did not obey the schedule, though that part of the script is identical for all 18. Part of the script is meant to improve follow for companions and that doesn't work at all.




Just remember to leave your kids in a safe place before you enter a dangerous area. And don't forget where you put them.

I use melian's teleport/multimark. I can never lose my companions and I generally don't take them overland. I usually just teleport them to me when I get where I'm going.

I'd be willing to write some dialogue, if you'd like. Some unique dialogue for the kids would really help the mod. I couldn't help notice that
once I adopted a kid there wasn't much to them and they felt rather generic. Adding some personality to them would really do a lot.


On the mod's technical side, everything seemed to work fine for me, except for a ton of loading errors I got upon starting up Morrowind. Stuff like:



and




Other than these and the rather obvious structural problems by the orphanage’s dormitory staircase; the rest of the mod was solid. Having to win the children’s' hearts before adopting was a very nice touch.

I also loved the Hobbit music. It fit the mood very well

You probably got some of the errors because I haven't yet cleaned "dirty references" which I plan to do before official release. I also made it so the kids would recognize if the player was running Emma's wolf companion mod, so even after I clean the references you might still get some errors on load if you don't use it, but it won't conflict with orphanage functionality. I had originally chosen Can-can as the music but that got annoying really fast during testing.

Okay, that's good to know :disco:

What are your thoughts on my suggestion to add more dialogue?

Right now I want to get the bugs fixed, then if I'm still waiting to hear from Emma (she's busy with family this week and can't play much) I'll try to figure out some dialogue. A new bug came up today that I never had before, so I need to address that too.