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23 -May -2013 - 15:38
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Simple City

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Category: Giskard's Blog
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 20:05
Written by Giskard
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Whilst I am stuck here waiting to build my new computer, I have been following the misadventyres of Simcity on Twitter.

Not only does it look like a CitiesXL clone with many if the same features, it appears to be a small scale city game and barely modern either. The word- on twitter is it emulates cities from the 1950s having had most modern city features stripped away.

One Twitter user listed several features most modern cities have and some features all previous Simcity games had, eg subways and explained the Simcity 5 simply does not support any of them.

Another user pointed out the cities are too small to be self sufficent and attempts to make them so would fail because there is not enough room for everything a city needs. 

Simcity 5 works in the same way as the original CitiesXL, each city needs other player cities to work. Also density is bases on roads this time.

 

Another thing was the interface is reported to be written in Java and not the much faster C++. Probably because it is better for online features.

EA has refused to give refunds despite selling a product a lot of paying customers cannot play because EA server issues. I think it is time the law protected the customer from that sort of fraud against gamers which is becoming increasingly common.

When games do not work, companies should be forced under the law to refund customers money. Then and only then will publishers care about the state of the games they sell us.

Until then, gamers will remain easy victims of dishonest publishers that repeatedly sell products that do not work.

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Boom...opps

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Last Updated on Monday, 11 March 2013 23:29
Written by Giskard
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For those of you that do not know yet, my old heavily used 6+ year old computer blew up. Leaving me without a computer.

Also my parts list seems to be £100 more now than it was in january, which is odd because they usually raise prices over christmas and drop things slightly for the sales and drop prices again after feb.

Anyway, l am hoping to order the parts i need tomorrow, how long they will take to arrive and whether i will be able to get them all in one go is anybodies guess.

I will have a lot of reinstalling to do when it is back up and running.

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Buggy Skyrim commands force major changes in Redoran Mod.

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Last Updated on Friday, 08 March 2013 19:43
Written by Giskard
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I have found the Papyrus Resurrect command in Skyrim is not resurrecting DEAD NPCs reliably, in some cases only half the resurrected NPCs appeared, in other cases none appeared at all.

Next we have the moveto bug which I showed you in the video previously.

It makes NPCs fly around like birds as seen HERE and again HERE when an Argonian Battlemage tries to shoot down one of the Airborne Rangers assigned to the Redoran Guard in Solstheim.

What, you did know Redoran guards could fly ?

Ordinarily they do not, but use the resurrect and then moveto commands on them and they can suddenly engage in air to air combat with Dragons.

Between the flying NPCs and NPCs that simply did not appear at all, I have had to completely scrap the idea of repeatable combat quests in the House Redoran Mod and covert them over to one shot quests instead. Which is a complicated process to say the least.

The Script saved in to your saved game issue.

Interestingly, I did some experiments with the "Saved games remember the scripts run in them" issue and found it is not actually the script that is remembered as much as it is everything the script is attached too.

In my test of the repeatable patrols which are staying in the mod since they do not involve critical NPCs not respawning or flying away. I accidentally added the same trigger to 2 end of patrol locations so you could go to either one to finish either quest instead of the one you where supposed to go too.

Clearly a mistake on my part.

So I fixed them by renamin one of the trigger boxes and editing its script, thus creating a new trigger box using the same formID reference and then just edited the script on the other trigger box. Trigger boxes did not change in game because of the way I fixed them.

The formID was the same, so the game used the scripts it remembered was attached to that formID rather than the edited versions I had made. Which explains a lot about my old Civil War mod breaking after each patch and updates not working right half the time.

End result, the fix did not work because the formID was already associated with the buggy script. 

So I selected each trigger, pressed control C to copy it, and control V to repaste it back in to the exact same location and deleted the original. This forced the game to use the newly pasted triggerboxes script and it worked.

Even though the trigger was the same, the script was the same, the formID had changed so the game used the new version correctly.

So you modders having issues with the game remembering your buggy scripts, its the formID on the item using the script you have to change to force an update.

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House Redoran: Armour trick

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Last Updated on Thursday, 28 February 2013 13:20
Written by Giskard
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I was just doing the wall papering in my living room when I remembered the Armour trick I used in Return to Helgen to support Matys Medieval Armour mod without me needing to include any files from his mod in mine.

I thought to my self that if I list all the lore based types of armour the Dragonborn DLC should have had but did not and make "stand in"  (FAKE) versions of those armour in the House Redoran Mod. You know the Aldrun armour, the temple armour etc.

Then publish the full path and file name I am using for each fake part of the armour so armour makers out there can delibrately conflict with the House Redoran FAKE armour files. You players could simply run those proper armour mods after House Redoran and as if by Magic, the armour would appear in the House Redoran Mod without ever actually being included with it.

All I would need is for some friendly Armour makers to make the lore based armour replacements using my path and file name and you could enhance the House Redoran Mod further and still use the Armour mod as a stand alone mod if you really wanted too.

The Armour mod would not even need to support the dragonborn dlc to appear on Solstheim, House Redoran would handle that.

Anyway that is just an idea I thinking about, if any Armour makers out there like it and want to make some lore based armour, go a head. If you let me know I'll sort out the file names early and post them for you.

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House Redoran: Plague

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 23:32
Written by Giskard
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I eventually got some work done today on the House Redoran Mod. The Plague quests voice work as been posted in the VA guide too so my Voice actors have something to do finally.

The healers quest line is now complete and will be used to unlock special temple missions on another Temple Priest NPC. Since joining the priesthood means you have actually joined House Indoril, and since Redoran Guard missions require you to be in House Redoran and a follower of the temple (not a priest). The Temple quests will NOT be a means to rise up the temple ranks, at least not right away.

Instead, the repeatable quests will earn you brownie points whilst giving you an understanding of the plague that has struck Raven Rock. As your brownie points add up, quests will unlock that lets you dig deeper in to the plague problem and eventually deal with it.

At which point I may end the plague, but that means ending the repeatable quests that support it, so I may find a reason not to end it so they can stay active after the source of the plague is dealt with. There will still be victims needing help even if the source is delt with so it is realistic.

I have a mind to use the Ash spawn story as a background to the plague plot which should make it fit in to the Dragonborn DLC nicely. Especially if I let the temples argue with each other over who is to blame first.

As I have said on the forums, the peaceful friendly priests will not be turning in to Conan the Priestarian to smite their enemies in the Temple Quest line, any fighting that needs to be done will be done by the Redoran Guard.

The Redoran Guards repeatable quests are likely to unlock a series of large battles too every so often, or other interesting quests.

I have some decorating to do tomorrow in my living room and will be finishing it off the day after. So this side of the weekend will probably not see much done.

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House Redoran: Tribunal Plot

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Category: Giskard's Blog
Last Updated on Sunday, 24 February 2013 17:08
Written by Giskard
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Got a sneak peak for you today, this one shows one of the Tribunal Priests explaining what happened to Vivec city according to them. The Dragonborn DLC explains the New Temples point of view but the House Redoran mod is going to look at this from the Tribunals side too.

Enjoy the video.

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House Redoran: Major Progress Yesterday.

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Category: Giskard's Blog
Last Updated on Saturday, 23 February 2013 10:58
Written by Giskard
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Wow I had an epic modding session yesterday. If people wonder how I made Kvatch Rising in 6 weeks when entire teams took 2 years to make a mod half as good, this is how.

First and most important step that all modders must understand behind my speedy modding is really to load up winamp and queue several Dio albums in it. Dio makes the boring room decorating fun and helps the time fly by. But is not much help when it comes to scripting. Its more of a distraction for quest creation actually. 

Second, well there is no second, Dio is the secret :)

Anyway the screenshot above is the second picture of the new Ancestor Tombs I made yesterday to be posted, the other is on the planning and design thread. The tombs turned out exactly as I wanted them to be, though I do wish there was a down stairs tile that did not involve the entrance looking like a Redoran House. As a result of that limitation, these tombs are on one level.

They are rich in loot but looting them will most likely come with a price tag... can you resist the loot, or are you a good little temple role player :)

I also redid the voice for the Redoran  Officer with my own version of the Morrowind male dunmer voice yesterday, it is not an exact match but I am pleased with it.

Have a Listen to my Morrowind style Dunmer voice.

I will say this, speaking like that takes a lot out of the old voice box, no wonder we never heard the voice after Morrowind.

I also added consequences for praying at one of the House of Trouble Shrines and of course added the House of trouble shrines with their own unique spells and scripted stuff. A fairly big feature but with a low impact on the game so it may not look fairly big but it is. Which is a sign of a good quest when you do not notice how global its influence is.

The Temple Pilgrimage is now how you join the temple and get back in to the temple when booted out and the Redoran Quests check your temple status before giving you missions and quests, so if you are not in the temple, you do not get any missions.

I tested these yesterday too and they work nicely but there are so many variations in the quests I am sure one of you players will find an interesting way break my hard work lol.

You usually do :)

Because I got all my "To Do" list done yesterday, including the old style Morrowind voice, I moved beyond it and created a hidden Tribunal Temple. This will be place where Vivec and the old Morrowind Gods are still worshipped. I intend to use them as a counter point to the New Temple that brand them merely saints. It will be a way of exploring the topic within the frame work of the Elder Scrolls Lore.

I still have to make various NPCs and dialogue for the temple v temple stuff yet and may do that today.

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More Articles...

  1. House Redoran: House of Troubles
  2. Some thoughts on Solsthiem
  3. Redoran Guard Defend Quests: Finished
  4. Redoran Guard v Ashpawn
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