Magika on 7/1/2004 at 05:51
ok..after much adue.. i got the PC version of morrowind.. i am well accustomed to the game since i have it on xbox. i do have a couple questions though.
1. I downloaded some plugins.. and they all say to extract them to the data files folder.. which is all well and good except some of them have folders named the same as ones already in there.. does this mean that i have to extract one plugin at a time?
2. A long time ago, i asked if it was possible to build a castle in an underground cavern. Forsythe said he believed it could be done but i havent figured out how yet.. does anyone have any ideas? (construction set..)
3. My most retarded question..How do you make the doors work linking exterior to interior?!
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. thanks!
Gingerbread Man on 7/1/2004 at 06:18
1. You can unzip them all. They will all go into the right places (assuming whoever made the plugin hasn't bobbled the zip... I've yet to find one that has, though) and you can select any or all of them as you choose from the Data Files (or whatever it's called) clicky when the Run Morrowind splash-thing comes up. It's not really advisable to remove or deactivate plugins mid-stream though. Morrowind will likely complain at you, but often with no teeth behind its threats to stop running properly. Don't be too alarmed if turning off a plugin in the middle of things makes scary-looking messages appear on the screen. You really shouldn't have a problem, and the worst that will happen is that you'll have to reload the game and put the offending plugin back to active.
Run as many as you like, unzip them all , don't worry too much, is basically the take-home message here.
2. Yes, it can be done. You just need to use the really big cavern archichunks. Most of Tribunal is underground, and there are some right whoppers of caverns with big buildings etc in them. Because of the way Morrowind handles cells (interior / exterior spaces) what you basically have is an exterior cell (the world) from which you can go into an interior cell (the cavern) which contains buildings with doors that take you to other interior cells. The weird conceptual thing is that the cells aren't actually linked in the way rooms and such are normally linked up in Reality -- as well as in most other game engines... it's more like they are their own little pockets of space that you teleport between... Once you start fiddling in the Construction Set you'll understand very quickly.
3. Doors are the magic of cells. You notice that going from exterior to interior (and vice versa) the door doesn't open, it just Loads...
GBM's Quick And Ugly Door Tut
a) build an interior cell
b) put a static door (one of the Loading kinds, like in_de_shack_door or something) somewhere a door would go in that interior cell
c) double-click the door and set its Teleport property to checked
d) underneath that you can now tell it which exterior cell you want the door to "open" onto (in other words, where the player gets dumped)
e) click Select Marker (make sure you have things set so you can see markers... they're big honking pink arrows, you can't miss 'em. If no monstrously huge pink arrow appears, check View > Markers to make sure it's on...)
f) move the arrow to point to where you want the player to be when the Loading is complete (may take some tweaking, usually doesn't)*
g) do the same thing with the specified exterior cell (the dumping point): put a door somewhere logical and set its teleport to checked. Tell it the name of the interior cell you want to dump the player into. Select Marker, position the marker, lalalala.
That's pretty much it, I think. I hope I haven't missed anything glaringly obvious, but it's been a long while since I built anything for Morrowind and my brain is wrinkly.
<small>* For to clarify:
You can do it either way: Set the interior door's properties and then staying in the interior cell Set Marker and position the arrow (which is actually the Come In arrow, not the Go Out one) and then go to the exterior cell and do the same thing, or you can do it the annoying way and set the interior door properties and then go to the exterior cell and set up the Go Out arrow first, then do the exterior door / Come In arrow. It doesn't matter, the arrows aren't linked to anything. They're just markers.</small>
Forsythe on 7/1/2004 at 06:25
Quote:
Originally posted by Magika Forsythe said he believed it could be done but i havent figured out how yet.. does anyone have any ideas? (construction set..)
That thread must've been from quite awhile ago... the construction set makes this all pretty easy, as GBM says (btw, nicely put, GBM).
Ania on 7/1/2004 at 19:13
Quote:
Originally posted by Magika I downloaded some plugins.. and they all say to extract them to the data files folder.. which is all well and good except some of them have folders named the same as ones already in there.. does this mean that i have to extract one plugin at a time?
Check out my recent (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=77346) Mods Question thread on what to do if things don't unzip into the right place, or create too many subfolders while unzipping.
Ania
RyushiBlade on 7/1/2004 at 21:01
If you want to build a castle, you'll want to be using all the Imperial objects. These are found under the Static tab. All the exterior Imperial objects should start with "ex_imp." As for the cave, you'll have to look under the Interiors, also found under the static tab. They start with "in."
A good interior would be the Battlefield in Old Mournhold (ID: in_moldcave_04) set at 2x it's size. Another good one, especially since it has like 'ledge' would be Akulakhan's chamber (ID: in_akulacave00).
Make sure to check some of the major Imperial forts for examples of how objects are used. It could give you some good ideas ^.^
Nanol on 8/1/2004 at 01:50
I believe there's a Balmora Underground mod somewhere out there if you wanted to use that for inspiration. I'd try it out but I've got enough on my plate with 80 mods installed already and a graphics card too slow to play the game at a sensible frame rate.
Magika on 8/1/2004 at 06:00
thanks for all the help guys.. i really appreciate it.. i guess i didnt make one thing clear. when i was asking about having to run plugins one at a time, its because they all have the folders icons..meshes etc.. and if i extract them they overwrite eachother. Does this mean that i have to load them one by one?
Nanol on 8/1/2004 at 12:08
For textures it might not matter too much...they could well be copies of the same texture. For instance, Rhedd's Heads are distributed in a vast number of mods, and they're the same heads, so it doesn't matter if they're overwritten.
Other mods such as Zugalug's Visual Pack and Better Bodies (to be released any day now!) are supposed to overwrite the originals because they improve the texture quality. Also those great voice expansions I guess overwrite original sound files. But if it's nothing obvious like that, I'd give a bit of thought to what it's overwriting and why. Personally I steer clear of the big mods like Adventurer's, Giants and Morrowind Advanced because they just change too many things to keep track of. I even got a bit panicy when installing The Light Mod, but it's just one of those obligitory mods for taffers.
--=--
Nan.
Edit: heh, well of course I wrote this just before reading about the huge argument that's just erupted on the official forums about the (fantastic) new Faces of Varvenfall (sp?) mod, where the creators altered some other mod makers' faces and used the original names - i.e. overwriting the originals with different content. Not a huge deal cos both versions are nice, but I guess it hurts egos when the wrong work is credited. I'd still stand by my theory that you can overwrite stuff provided you think first, but perhaps, erm, compare file sizes when you get the overwrite yes / yes to all / no prompt up in future ;)
Blith_Erring_Idio on 8/1/2004 at 14:52
Quote:
Originally posted by Magika thanks for all the help guys.. i really appreciate it.. i guess i didnt make one thing clear. when i was asking about having to run plugins one at a time, its because they all have the folders icons..meshes etc.. and if i extract them they overwrite eachother. Does this mean that i have to load them one by one?
Most makers of plug-ins rename thier own creations so that it doesn't overwrite the originals... there are a few exceptions but the good mods use renamed meshes and textures so that the original stays... if a mod uses an original and it is included in the plug-in then there is no worry about it overwriting... I have a way of installing plug-ins that I would like to share...
First I unzip the file to a folder on my desktop that I create with the same name as the plug in. Then I open the folder on my desktop that I just created and I open the Morrowind/Data folder also. I size them so I can have them side-by-side. In the new folder you just unzipped you should see a pocketknife icon with the name of the plug-in and maybe a couple other folders such as mesh or sounds but maybe not. The pocketknife icon should be copied and put directly into the Morrowind/Data folder next to all the other pocketknife icons. Then you should open the other folders that came in the new plug-in, one at a time, and copy all the contents that are in them to the same folder with the same name in the Morrowind/Data folder. For example: if there is a folder in the new plug-in called meshes, open it up, highlight everything in it, copy it all (right click and select copy) then open the mesh folder in Morrowind/Data folder, right click inside that folder and select paste. You should see everything from the new plug-in folder appear in the Morrowind/Data/Mesh folder. After you have done that for all the remaining folders and their corresponding folders in Morrowind/Data folder, close everything, start the game and you should be able to play your new plug-in. If there is no corresponding folder in Morrowind/Data then you can copy the entire folder over. I would never suggest overwriting any folders in your original install. If there is a folder with the same name already in Morrowind/Data then just copy the contents. DO NOT overwrite existing folders.
Magika on 9/1/2004 at 06:14
Ok guys thanks for all your help! Now for my next problem. im the contruction editor, i am trying to make a door in balmora, a trap door on the ground. When i place it in the editor it looks perfect, but it doesnt show up in the game.. any htoguhts? also. is there a way to move items up and down? like if a wall is floating..
