Morroblivion Playtest – VI

More Morroblivion stuff.  Nearing the end of the main quest now!

For some reason, it seems Sinammu Mirpal’s feet are inside the floor. Not sure why. However, it is hardly noticeable.

The Madstone of the Ahemmusa has no effects. I assume this is the same sort of problem as the items given to the player by the failed Nerevarines in the Cavern of the Incarnate.

For some reason, there are several people standing completely still in Nerano Ancestral Tomb. If you attempt to talk to these people, it opens their inventories. I don’t know if these are supposed to be dead individuals or if they are simply glitched people, but its very strange.

When Savile Imayn asked me for Exquisite clothing, I went and purchased it, but when I returned she insisted that I did not have the right items. I’m not sure what happened here. I’m working on making her see them.

Apparently what happened was that I bought the wrong Exquisite Shirt (there is a set of 4 and a set of 2 in the inventory of the clothier in Tel Mora). I purchased the right one and it recognized it as fulfilling the quest requirements. I don’t know what differentiated the shirts.

Interestingly, you are supposed to use the key given to you by Imayn to unlock Llervu’s cage, but instead she walked right out of it. I imagine this has something to do with the game realizing she is no longer a slave belonging to Imayn and instead belongs to you.

If I’m not mistaken, there is an option in Ashkhan Kaushad’s dialogue in which he admits that he knows Llervu is not a real Telvanni, and apparently he will also give you an Exquisite Shirt as a gift. I read this on the Wiki, so I don’t know what the dialogue option actually is, but it is noticeably absent in his dialogue in Morroblivion.

When I walked into Saryoni’s quarters, he and someone else in the room began attacking me. The Ordinators in the room continuously attacked the both of them and knocked them out. I’m going to reload my game, since this is very clearly wrong.

After talking with David, I ended up using the console to make Saryoni amiable. I’m back on the path of the main quest.

Vivec looks really odd. His body is that of an Imperial (skin color, at least), but he has a half dark elf/half high elf (??) face, hands, and feet.  I think this would be neat, if it weren’t for the Imperial body, which mostly makes him look like a naked guy with funny gloves, slippers and a mask.

The statement that you will agree to receive Wraithguard is not capitalized (it says “yes, I accept wraithguard” or something similar). Since it is capitalized in the refusal of Wraithguard, I figure it should probably be capitalized in the acceptance.

It would seem I’m missing a texture at the top of Ghostfence, as there is a weird purple strand running across the top of the whole thing. I wonder what it is.

My game crashed at this point, so I quit playing for the evening. I’ll pick back up soon and start taking on Ash Vampires.

Morroblivion Playtest – V

I picked up today at the quest into Kogoruhn.

There are still no Dagoth monsters in Kogoruhn–including the boss of the area.  I believe that was a problem with monsters being transferred over, but I figured I’d point it out again.

When Crassius Curio demanded 1000 drakes from me in order to support me as Hortator of Hlaalu, he insisted that I did not have 1000 drakes. I, in fact, had 24000 at this point. I ended up having to boost his disposition so he would ask a kiss of me instead.

Oddly, Yngling Half-Troll DID take 2000 drakes from me when I agreed to giving him the money. Not sure what the problem was with Curio.

There are no quest markers for the Hlaalu Hortator quest. I believe this is because there was no trigger to make a journal entry about it. For the Redoran quest, you could ask a Redoran councilor about other councilors and they would give you a book containing their locations, and this would trigger the journal entry for the quest and make the map markers. I wonder if a similar action would work for the Hlaalu quest—so far none of the councilors have had such a topic to discuss, so I cannot tell.

A bit northeast of the Telvanni Canton of Vivec, there is a strange ridge where it looks like two parts of the world don’t quite meet up correctly. It is easiest to see if approaching Vivec from the northeast—it is in a sandy area, a beach near some water.

Everything else worked fine. I’m caught up once again.

Morroblivion Playtest – IV

Picking up from what I believe was the quest to kill Dagoth Gares.

The Wraith of Sul-Senipul got a makeover—and I like it! It seems much more quest-related than just some random renamed monster.

Ilunibi is listed on the map as Iinibi with two capital Is at the beginning.

Divayth Fyr took the Dwemer Coherer from my inventory this time—however, his torso is still invisible. I forget what advice I was given for this, but I’m not terribly concerned about it anyway.

There is supposed to be a prompt in Yagrum’s dialogue called “theories”–after you talk to him about Disappearance of the Dwarves. It does not appear.

Not that it’s a PROBLEM, per se, but everything in Mehra Milo’s quarters are marked as not belonging to anyone. It saves me the work of changing the ownership so I can steal it, but it’s sort of strange.

When Gilvas Barelo is asked about Nerevar, he tells you he is giving you some books on Nerevar, but you receive no books.

I stopped at the quest into Kogoruhn.  Moving a bit more slowly this time around.

Morroblivion Playtest – III

Back to replaying the Morroblivion main quest mod, I found a few new errors and a few old ones.  Documented below, as usual.

In the opening character creation, the hairstyle selector on the female side refused to move off of Wind Braids. I ended up opening the console and using “showracemenu” and that seemed to fix it. I’m not sure if this was something that went wrong in the mod itself or just in my game.

Caius does not offer training, and neither does Rithleen or Nine-Toes (I am looking into what other Blades trainers are missing their training options). I heard that there were some problems with NPCs who were supposed to train being brought over, so this may be collateral from that.

EDIT: He now offers training.  I haven’t checked Rithleen or Nine-Toes.  And honestly, I’m not sure what fixed it.  I wonder if leveling up so you can participate in the main quest activates his Training (as in he considers you a part of the Blades faction and offers Training).

When NPCs talk to each other, much of the dialogue applies to Cyrodill instead of Morrowind. I don’t know that this can even be changed, but it seems rather odd when people are talking about rumors in another country.  And on that note, in the Quest journals, the first entry for Tutorial states that the red marker points the character to Weynon Priory.  I never noticed this pop up in-game, but it’s a little strange to see it in my journal.

There are two chests on the wall near Sharn gra-Muzgrob. Both should be locked (I believe the one on the left is a level 75 lock in Morrowind and the other is either 10 or 25), as breaking into the chest on the right allows you to access her secret Necromancer books that you can use to blackmail her into giving you scrolls. These are not locked in the mod (making it much easier to blackmail her into teaching you a spell).

0185cb2d is the number for the flat, purple square in the Andrano Ancestral Tomb. I disabled it and it seems fine now. Go figure. There were three others under the numbers 0185cb2e, 0185cb33, and 0185cb32. They are also disabled now.

Occasionally topics already discussed in conversation will pop back up as unread—and then they’ll go back to being read—and then go back to being unread without ever being touched again. Sometimes when you listen to someone’s conversation, it’ll remain unread even though they have nothing more to say. I don’t know if this is just a problem with Oblivion or with the mod, but it is there.

Off the main quest path, but apparently if you go to Seyda Neen, travel back through the Census and Excise Office and return to the ship, then turn around and try to go back through the Office as if you were starting a new game, the last door out out of the building (out of Sellus Gravius’ office) gives the error message “This lock cannot be picked.” even though the door is open. I don’t know why this is happening—my guess is that it has something to do with the dialogue with Sellus Gravius (who presumably unlocks that door once you complete the opening tutorial).

That’s all for now.  I’ll pick the game back up soon.  I’ve reached the Urshilaku camp and I’m about to set out to get the Bonebiter Bow once again.

We Interrupt This Program…

Pausing momentarily between Morroblivion Playtest posts to…uhh, talk more about Morroblivion and Elder Scrolls stuff.  I JUST DON’T WANT THEM TO GET MIXED UP, SINCE THE PLAYTEST POSTS ARE ALL BUSINESS-LIKE, OKAY??

Well, the update to the mod got posted, so I started up a new game and I’m heading through it as fast as possible.  I jacked up my stats so I wouldn’t have to worry about dying much, and therefore I’m blasting through the main quest at high speed.  So far a lot of what I saw last time has been cleaned up, which is awesome.  There seem to be more enemies around, but I believe that was mentioned on the forums already.  In any case, I’ll have new posts on that tonight, more than likely.  I’m not sure I’ll get any playing in tonight, but I do have some notes from yesterday’s session that I neglected to post yesterday.

I also started a game in Morrowind so I could compare the main quest in that to the mod’s version.  I’ve only noticed a few things missing from the mod that were in the real game, so things seem awesome on that front.

On the topic of non-Elder Scrolls things, things are pretty awesome right now.  This semester is creeping toward completion, and I seem to be doing passably well in my classes.  I do have to study like a sonofabitch tonight so I can do well on my Politics test (I got a B last time–not horrible, but a lower grade than I would ahve liked), but otherwise I’m doing well.  Painting is unusually awesome this year–I don’t know if I’ve just gotten into the swing of things or figured out how I want to paint, but I’m really enjoying myself and doing well.  Go figure.

Outside of school, things are great.  The clubs are running smoothly (aside from a bit of drama that I’m mostly ignoring), and I’ve been making some money.  Actually, I sold one of my paintings (to the model depicted in the image), and on top of the painting I did for my cousins and the commission I have to finish soon, I’ve been making a surprising amount of money for having no job.

D&D has started up again this year–we have two campaigns running, one of which is set in a modern world and is run by Will.  The other is another Alan campaign which has taken a turn for the stranger–as in apparently we will be continuing our adventure in Labyrinth.  The movie.  We also have a questionnaire to answer about our characters for that game, and I’ll be starting that tonight.  I wish I knew more about Halfling culture.

Other than that, I suppose I don’t have much to say.  I know it’s just TERRIBLY FASCINATING when I update my blog with REAL FACTS ABOUT MY LIFE as opposed to drama, rants, or random facts about games, but I guess you’ll all just have to calm down while I go back to that other stuff.

Morroblivion Playtest – II

Today, I picked up at the Corprus Cure quest.  Once again, I ran into a handful of noticeable problems.

For whatever reason, Divayth Fyr’s torso is invisible. I looked in my files, and the cuirass.nif in the m folder of Daedric Lord is there, so I’m not sure what’s causing the problem.

The Dome of Pollock’s Eve at Kogoruhn is supposed to have a Dagoth monster in it (as far as I can tell from the guide)–there is nothing but the quest item in this location, so I don’t know if the monster is not in the game, glitched to not be in the location, simply not there usually, or just not there because I have the game on an easier setting. Just a note.

And apparently there is no Dagoth monster in Nabith Waterway or Bleeding Heart. I don’t know if these are just monsters that aren’t implemented yet, but that would be my guess. (It does make it easier to get the quest item in Bleeding Heart, though.)

Not of very much importance, but Caius Cosades is still in his house after he claims he has to leave for the mainland (at the beginning of the Lost Prophecies quest). Again, it’s not a huge deal since you can use his house the same way whether or not he’s in it (or at least you can use his bed—you still can’t legally access any of his belongings or containers), but it is an interesting note.

When going to take Moon-And-Star from Azura’s hands in the Cavern of the Incarnate, there appears to be nothing there. I don’t know if the item is normally supposed to be invisible, but while the item is active and able to be removed, it cannot be seen.

Several of the artifacts given to the player by the ghosts in the Cavern of the Incarnate do not have the same effects as those in the original game. I do not know if this is because these effects (spells, fortifications, etc.) do not exist or function properly in Oblivion. Those I noticed being problematic are the Travel-Stained Pants, Conoon Chodala’s Axe, and Hort-Ledd’s Robe. Interestingly, Caius’ shirt and pants that he gives you when he decides to leave also do not have their effects active in this, though again this might be because it is impossible in Oblivion.

I don’t know if it is supposed to be this way, but I was allowed to be named Urshilaku Nerevarine—since this is part of the Fifth Trial and I believe is supposed to take place after being named Hortator in all the houses, this may be a bug. I know it was not listed as completely debugged on the forums. In any case, it seemed to work just fine.

In Venim’s manor, when going to rescue Varvur Sarethi, apparently guards are supposed to attack you if they see Varvur following you. I passed several guards, and no one even payed attention to me. It makes it easier, but it is not how it is supposed to happen, as far as I can tell.

Once Varvur Sarethi is returned to his father, he continued to follow me and I had no option to tell him to stop. I ended up wandering around with him following me for a while, attempted to kill him, reloaded my game, and then went back to Sarethi manor, where he decided to stay with no prompting. Curious and rather annoying.

At one point, upon leaving Balmora (from selling loot from killing Venim for the Redoran Hortator quest), when I returned to Ald-Ruhn there was an ashstorm in which there was no debris or ash, but the sky and buildings in the distance behaved as if there was an ashstorm. I do not know why this would happen, since ashstorms were working fine just a little while ago.

At this point, I have reached the end of what has been debugged.  I am now going to start a game in Morrowind to see if there is anything missing from the Morroblivion version.  More updates later, perhaps.

Morroblivion Playtest – I

WELP.  I’m doing another multi-post series, though this one probably won’t be too long.

The short version of the preface is that I started messing around with a mod to add Morrowind’s locations, NPCs, and main quest to Oblivion (‘cuz yo dawg, we heard you liked Elder Scrolls, etc. etc.).  Since it’s still being worked on, I agreed to help playtest the main quest and make sure things are working okay.  And since it is exponentially easier for me to explain what I’ve found on a blog than on a forum (where long posts might seem out of place), I’m going to post my progress here.  And by progress, I mean I’m just going to explain how far I got and then talk about weird things I found that might be of note.

Just so it’s known, I started my game from a pre-existing Oblivion file–not a new game beginning in Morrowind.  This may or may not have affected some of the results I got.

So here’s what I found, starting at the beginning of the main quest and ending after getting Corprus.

Attempting to sit on the bench at the top of the Seyda Neen lighthouse will make the player sit facing the wall against which the bench is placed, and standing up causes the player to fall through the wall and all the way through the floor, taking damage before being respawned in the lighthouse.

Occasionally when talking to people, the screen will glitch out and it will appear to zoom in and out rapidly for a moment.  It doesn’t seem to affect anything in game permanently.

Caius sometimes tries to sit in the chair in his house and ends up floating above his table.  This happens when the player attempts to sit, too.  This only happens with the chair on the left (when facing the chairs from the door)–when sitting in the chair on the right, he seems to function normally.

There are large, flat, purple squares attached to the ceiling in the Ancestral Tomb. This may be a textural problem, but I have no idea what the mesh would be, so it may just be a glitch or something.  Using FormID Finder to look at the purple square’s mesh seems to indicates the wall behind it.

A bonewalker in the Ancestral Tomb caused permanent stat damage—this either means the stat got glitched and the curse never wore off, or the bonewalker was programmed to have a curse spell that does permanent damage (which is a trait of a spell belonging to greater bonewalkers—normal bonewalkers’ curses wear off after 60 sec).

When accused of a crime, an Ordinator will approach you in Vivec (presumably this applies to other kinds of guards, I haven’t checked yet) to tell you to pay fines or go to jail, but the dialogue is not there, so when the Ordinator approaches you, the only dialogue options are those normally available when peacefully talking to one (rumors, Temple, etc.). Ending the conversation will result in the Ordinator continuously approaching you and never being able to arrest you.

Talking to the Addhiranirr in Vivec about quest items after already getting information from her will result in the khajit insisting you have not fulfilled her request yet so she won’t tell you anything a second time.  This is not particularly problematic except if you wanted to reread the dialogue because it went by too quickly–and dialogue does generally go by really quickly.

After a short time in the Ald Skar Inn, looking for information on Zainsubani, a quest prompt showed up out of nowhere stating that someone I had not yet talked to had told me the man liked books, etc. When I talked to the person who would normally prompt this, obviously nothing happened.  I am not sure what triggered the prompt.

When the player’s name is used in writing (and in dialogue—though it may just be a side effect of non-working quests in such cases as joining a guild), the variable %PCname is shown instead of the player’s name. I don’t know if this is true for games that begin in Morrowind instead of Cyrodill, but it at least applies to characters going to Morrowind after Cyrodill. Related to that, the release papers in Seyda Neen do not contain any information about the player at all. Again, this might be solved in games that begin in Morrowind, but happens to those players traveling to Seyda Neen from Cyrodill.

Some bodies cannot be looted—most notably this includes Nix Hounds.

I seem to recall that sleeping after a certain point in the main quest triggers attacks on the player by Sleepers or Dreamers (I don’t recall which).  I noticed that these do not occur when sleeping–or at least I have not encountered any yet.  I should mention I don’t believe I’ve slept for more than an hour at a time, so that may or may not have something to do with it.  Additionally, I’m not even sure how the attacks are supposed to work–there may be some other variable that has to be activated in order for them to happen.  However, I thought it might be a point worth mentioning.

I don’t know how much of these are relevant or already noted, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to document all of them.

I should be picking it up again tomorrow, so I’ll post again with more updates.

(P.S. IT’S SO COOL TO BE ABLE TO PLAY MORROWIND IN OBLIVION FAST TRAVEL AND NICE WATER AND SPEECHCRAFT AND NICE LOOKING CHARACTERS OH MY GODDDD)