Reviewing criteria.

[sandor]

Reviewing criteria for Ebbedin, Reich Parkeep, Silgrad city and Steadhelm.

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CS == Construction set.



Reviewing team.


For questions and / or remarks contact sandor (head of the reviewing team).


Senior Reviewers:

sandor ; Interior and exterior claims.
TheImperialDragon ; Interior claims for Ebbedin and Exterior/ Dungeons claims.



Reviewers:

[size=0]Hegemege ; Interior claims for Silgrad city and Soluthis
Zurke ; Interior claims for Silgrad city and Soluthis[/size]

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25.05.07 15:00 CET
After a thorough Core discussion the following has been decided:

Physiqued objects will from here on out be placed directly on the surface with the F key (do not use the havok sim).


Havok should be used in the following situations.

1.
The havok sim should be used in these occasions that objects start falling through the surface of e.g. a table. Do not use "F" (*) and the object will hover slightly (which is ok).

A lot of the instances with havok objects falling through things is a result of the collision of the furniture.

2.
It's ok to fill fruit bowls/baskets/buckets etc by activating the havok sim and using CTRL+D on the fruit or other foodstuff. After filling the bowl adjust (havok sim disabled) the objects (X, Y) and adjust the Z position while holding "Z". In that way there will be almost no floating and it's easy to fill the bowl/basket/bucket.

3.
A modder should playtest the physics before submitting a claim. By simply taking a minute to move around the player character on every nook and cranny of his interior in-game and see if strange things happen to the objects. If an object behaves strangely, use the havok sim.

This list will be updated with new examples when necessary.

Inform the reviewer (upfront) you used the havok sim, otherwise it will be treated as a floater.


How to fix objects that were placed via the havok sim?

Hold "Z" (havok sim disabled): Lift the object, then lower the object using the mouse (until it's settled on the surface).

(*)
Objects placed via the havok sim will only behave unnaturally (not always) when placed with the havok sim and then settled to the surface with "F". For example, an object is catapulted from a table with extreme force after the PC touched the object in question. This method is not allowed to be used, when modding for ST.

How to fix this?
Hold "Z" (havok sim disabled): Lift the object, then lower the object using the mouse (until it's settled on the surface).

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From June first 2007 onwards, it isn't allowed to add topics through the add topic listing. Add the topics through the result script listing, to avoid problems when merged to the esm (topics don't show up in-game), because of bug in the CS. For example: addtopic StSrSol0501Soluthis. Look at the screenshot.

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Immersion.

Originally written by Razorwing
In either case, in my opinion the best all-round question is: "does it break immersion?" Because it covers a lot of bases. Does a satanic cult in someone's basement break immersion?
It does, because Satan doesn't exist in Elder Scrolls. Does steel armor on Dunmer guards break immersion? It does, because evidence from TES3 is that all Dunmer guards wear bonemold. Pragmatism has to enter into it too, naturally. Right now we can't be firm about bonemold because it doesn't exist yet. Personally I used a bamboo armor I found on the net instead, just as a placeholder to make the guards look different.

Use your best judgement, if you're not sure, please post a question.

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Team Guidelines.

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Floating and Bleeding.

Floating items, you are responsible for finding them. For items like furniture, sometimes a simple "F" will not do the trick, make sure that your mod is free from these, if you miss a few it is not a huge deal, but please be thorough. Use the CS to check for floaters, if you don't know how to do this, check in-game. The general rule: It may not be visible in-game!


If there are too many floaters around, the file will not be released for merging.

Furniture is floating because of the silhouette (the CS assumes (after pressing "F") the bench (for example) is already on the floor, it's an error). Press once (sometimes twice) "F". All the furniture with silhouettes have the same problem.

Bleeding is not allowed, only intentionally.
If you're bleeding intentionally (and it's not obvious), please let us know.
For example when a bowl is (partly) fused with the cupboard (it should be settled on the surface of the cupboard).

Look at the attached screenshots. The left one is for bleeding (barrel into the wall/cupboard and the bowl into the cupboard) and the right one is for floating (bread and the jug).



Naming your objects.

For example StSr.............

St; for Silgrad tower.
Sr; modder ID.

"..."; the name for your new object.

Claiming your ID.



The interior.

Use an activatorflamnode04 etc. or add sound.

Use candlepuddles when the candle is on a wooden (burnable) surface.

Make sure, the interior is very well decorated (add enough clutter), not too empty.

For Reich Parkeep name your cell (in the final version) to ReichParkeepXX. XX= Claimnumber.
For Steadhelm name your cell (in the final version) to SteadhelmXX. XX= Claimnumber.
For Silgrad city name your cell (in the final version) to SilgradCityXX. XX= Claimnumber.

Assign ownership to a door and lock it, if you want to use "lock and unlock" in a AI package.

Assign ownership to the cell(s).
Make it public, off limits etc.

Adjust the lighting, it's nice to see something (in a normal interior).
If you set the ambient lighting to 100,100,100, add lights (the light has to have a source, you can use fakes).

Lock chests. Make it difficult for the PC to steal (valuable) objects.

Don't use unique items, too many expensive items and / or rare items.
Make the interior balanced meaning it shouldn't be too easy to steal a lot of valuable stuff.

It's allowed to use the same lay-out (no copy, you have to mod it yourself ) e.g. from a basement, it's not allowed to copy paste parts of interiors, you have to mod every interior from scratch.



NPC, dialogue and AI.

Add dialogue. At least one greeting, one misc. topic and one topic for Ebbedin, Reich Parkeep, Silgrad city or Steadhelm (depending on where you claimed your interior). Comply to the correct naming for the quest and the topics.

Add AI, at least a sleep, wander and eat package.
Comply to the correct naming.

Make the AI chronological. Place the wander package as the last one in the list.



For the NPC.

Comply to the correct naming.
Don't select essential for a normal NPC.
The highest level for a NPC is around 50 (a fully trained Legionnair).
So a normal NPC isn't level 50!

Add a food item to the inventory, count -1.



Pathgrid.

Add a Pathgrid.
Make sure there are tetrahedrons's (points, th's) on both sides of a bed(s) or chair(s) (if the NPC sits down from the side). Make sure the th's touch the silhouette.



General Remarks.


Playtest your file. Test the AI, dialogue and the pathgrid.

Try to work clean. Meaning don't switch to other interiors and change things (by accident) and save the file afterwards.
The file will be contaminated and has to be cleaned.
Cleaning your mod.

Try to create an interesting interior. For example the NPC has lunch outside the house, wanders through the city and add a quest.

These are all criteria that matter for making / creating a good interior.


Files are not released for merging before the interior/ exterior reviewer approves.



Concluding.

Good modding and have fun!




EXTRA INFO

FAQ Tutorials.

Creating interiors.

CS Wiki.

for image attachments:

Poster has attached these images (downsized versions):

Result script Bleeding Floating