Less Generic NPC Project: Ald-Ruhn

[Dark Master]

I guess the title is a bit of a give-away, we are looking for people who will be able to devote maybe twenty minutes to half an hour a day to a mod that will replace all of the dialogue in Ald-Ruhn. There are a lot of NPCs that require replacing in Ald-Ruhn, 124 to be precise, it’s going to be an excruciating month or two, but we will have no intention of failing. It’s a good time to tackle this monster town because a lot of people are on school holidays. If you feel you may be able to help out here's what’s involved:

You must be able to write reasonably well, you don't have to be Tolkien, but you do have to be able to write interesting and engaging dialogue.

The plan for Ald-Ruhn is to have three separate teams working at different parts of the town, and merging all three mods to get the final plugin. All you have to do as a writer is fill out a template (one is included below for reference) and email it to your team leader when each character is done. We will want to stay within the Morrowind feel (so no words like 'cool', 'bollocks', or 'DVD player').

We do need people to be committed, so if you take an NPC on, it’s expected that it’s done within 72 hours (takes about 20 minutes, half an hour if you add extra topics), so it’s not a huge commitment.

No long term commitment is required, so you can take on an NPC, and not take on another until he/she is finished, so you make a decision on a 'rolling' basis. Or you can take five, and have two weeks to do them.

Here’s the template for Ald-Ruhn so you have an idea what kind of thing is expected of you. If, after reading it, you think you can help out, and would like to, reply here, and add me to your MSN list, or reply here and email me, I can give you more details. Replying here is just so this thread stays alive.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Ald-Ruhn Template:

Useful abbreviations:

NPC race: %race
NPC class: %class
NPC name: %name
NPC rank: %rank
Player name: %pcname
Player race: %pcrace
Player class: %pcclass
Player rank (only if in same faction): %pcrank
Player next rank (only if in same faction): %pcnextrank


NPC Name:

Background:

My Trade:

Ald-Ruhn:

House Redoran (player is not a member):

House Redoran(player is a member):

House Redoran(player is the leader – note, they will have killed Bolvyn Vemin):

Latest Rumours:

Someone in particular:

Little Advice:

Little Secret:

Specific Place:

Services:

Morrowind Lore:

Dunmer {if the NPC is a different race, replace with their race}:

Any topic you want added put here, if you want player responses write them in, as well as what the NPC will say/do after each response, if you would like one dialogue option to open up another, put the key phrase in bold in the first response and add a new response for the phrase below, eg:

Background: I’m a simple farmer.

Simple Farmer: Yes, I make my living off the land.

Dark Master

PS, even if you've worked on a previous town, I need confimation that you'll be on this one.

[Monolith]

Alright, let's keep the thread alive

I don't have MSN ( or at least no account) and I think there's no need of writing you a mail, after all those PMs?

BTW, one question. You mentioned 124 NPCs, guards included?

[Dark Master]

Guards are not included, but I do need your email address (send it to me in a PM if you'd rather). I'm going to send a big message on Saturday with the plan for the mod, and each team listed on it. ie:

Team 1
Team leader: DM
Team members: JesterKing, PersianPaladin, etc

Team 2
Team leader: oldmanbob
Team members: Will, Monolith (just an example, nothing decided at all yet), etc

Team 3
Team leader: Max ~ aka Nobody
Team members: <insert names>

I'm looking forward to hearing from the people from this forum who worked on the last mod, so I know if I can put them on a team, ie, Beornica and Fable.

DM

[PersianPaladin]

I am going on holiday next week for a period of 7 days, but i am prepared to work on a few more NPC's in Ald-Rhun, or as many as possible - but i don't have time to do 'quest-based' NPC's, however much i would love to.

[Dark Master]

Originally Posted by PersianPaladin

I am going on holiday next week for a period of 7 days, but i am prepared to work on a few more NPC's in Ald-Rhun, or as many as possible - but i don't have time to do 'quest-based' NPC's, however much i would love to.

Neither do I. No more quest NPCs after the nightmare I had putting the dialogue in last time.

DM

[Rookierookie]

Since I've gotten an old computer for myself I have all the time I need on computer based projects.

I don't know a great deal about the scripting, however, so I'd need some help.

I've never been in House R so I can't do any dialogues for members. I can't actually mod, but I can write reasonably well.

My Email

[Dark Master]

I'll email you in the next three days.

[Yeltsu]

I would like to help as well. I cannot mod, but I can write well enough.
I have msn, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[PersianPaladin]

Well, i don't think it will be a problem excluding quest-based NPC's from the Ald-Rhun project, because all we need to do is to edit the NPC's that don't have quests already, but not touch the NPC's there that already have quests attached to them.

I think we should keep quest-based NPC's for the smaller settlements, though - thats my reccomendation.

[Dark Master]

Originally Posted by PersianPaladin

Well, i don't think it will be a problem excluding quest-based NPC's from the Ald-Rhun project, because all we need to do is to edit the NPC's that don't have quests already, but not touch the NPC's there that already have quests attached to them.

I think we should keep quest-based NPC's for the smaller settlements, though - thats my reccomendation.

If by quest NPCs you mean ones that give quests (ie Edwinna) then we can replace her other dialogue, the basic topics, and she will still give the quests out fine. But if you are talking about NPCs like the Zama-Rasours, I agree we should keep them for smaller towns, in fact it'll be a while before I put any more quests in game.

DM

[Rookierookie]

So, like, all that needs to be done is to make them talk more like real people than clones?

[JesterKing]

lol! exactly rookie... clones is a good word for it. oh and DM, is it even possible to do guards? they are randomly re-spawning i suppose so it would be more like clones than ever if we made them uniquely scripted... argh well defenitely count me in on this project.

[Dark Master]

Guards are clones. Many NPCs with the same ID. If we give unique dialogue to one, they all say it. We were able to give the guards in Khuul and Ald-Velothi specific dialogue for the topics Khuul and Ald Velothi, since this would mean all guards in those towns said that topic, but there is only one guard. Topics like background would be said by guards all over Vvardenfell since that is not a local topic.

DM

[JesterKing]

oh well... a great number of real world military forves are brainwashed to say the same thing anyway, so its realistic enough!

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Dark Master

Guards are clones. Many NPCs with the same ID. If we give unique dialogue to one, they all say it. We were able to give the guards in Khuul and Ald-Velothi specific dialogue for the topics Khuul and Ald Velothi, since this would mean all guards in those towns said that topic, but there is only one guard. Topics like background would be said by guards all over Vvardenfell since that is not a local topic.

DM

But that can be changed as well. I admit that it could cause incompatibility ( arg, what a word...) but it would make the mods even better. I'm sure that guards have much to say...
( Just give every guard an own ID and delete the clone-guards. The problem is that mods which change the clone-guards in order to change every guard of that type in Morrowind wouldn't change much anymore...)