Ebb11 - Relneth's Repairs (Claimed, Finished)

[TheImperialDragon]

Claimed and Finished by ImaJunryou

This is an entirely new character and location, so it's pretty flexible in what you want to do for this claim. Just remember Ebbedin is a poor village, so don't make anything very luxurious.

The concept is that Relneth is the Mr. Fix-It of the village. While he can repair just about anything, he doesn't necessarily do a very good job of it... He may be living with more NPCs. This claim requires AI and dialogue.

Model: StStInRedBuilding06

1. To claim this location, please post a reply saying so. It's not granted until TheImperialDragon ok's it, which he usually does.

2. To mod a claim, start a new .esp dependant on Oblivion.esm, and Silgrad_Tower.esm. Mod the location at your discretion and free time, within reason. Please check the Ebbedin Board for the latest information. Don't forget to add a pathgrid.

[ImaJunryou]

I would like to pick up this claim. Just to be sure, is Relneth a Dunmer? Does he (I assume he) have a last name, or is that up to my choosing, or does he (again with the assuming) not get one?

[TheImperialDragon]

Granted. :check:

Relneth should be a Dunmer, and you can decide what his last name will be. Or, if you want Relneth as the last name and something else for the first, that's fine too.

As said in the original post (OP), this claim is a completely new location, and therefore pretty flexible. The idea I put forward in the OP is just a very basic template.

[ImaJunryou]

A couple of questions. Can I mod around the exterior of the house (say, a smithing anvil and furnace, or a shop front), or should his living and work spaces all be in the interior.

Also, the initial claim mentions the possibility of extra NPCs bunking with him. Do I need to come up with these NPCs or is it for a future plan? If I do need to make them, how many?

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by ImaJunryou
A couple of questions. Can I mod around the exterior of the house (say, a smithing anvil and furnace, or a shop front), or should his living and work spaces all be in the interior.

Mod only in the interior for now. I'm still working on the exterior in a seperate file, so any changes might create a conflict. What do you need added to the exterior?

Originally posted by ImaJunryou
Also, the initial claim mentions the possibility of extra NPCs bunking with him. Do I need to come up with these NPCs or is it for a future plan? If I do need to make them, how many?

The extra NPC is completely optional, so if you want to make one, you can name him/her however you want and create his/her character. The idea is that the extra NPC would be a wife, but an apprentice would be possible as well.

[ImaJunryou]

Ah, I see.

What I had in mind for the exterior was, ideally, a sort of furnace/coal pit that he could heat iron with, along with an anvil to work upon. I can make room in his basement for it, if need be, but I'm having trouble finding any furnace meshes (ideally similar to the one found at the weapons smith in Ald-Ruhn, in Morrowind). Also, it would be nice to have a small awning with a table for display of merchandise just outside his house. That would be his actual shop front, and the interior would be for living and working on items. I don't know how viable either of those would be, though. I haven't really poked around his house's surroundings recently, so I don't recall any sort of a back yard or open area to stick these things...

The furnace could simply be located in the local iron mine, as well, and Relneth could make a trip there on a weekly basis (or more if needed) to make use of it. If that were the case, it could lead to some interesting twists in some quests. His shop closes down, because of an incident at the mine preventing the use of the furnaces, stopping his production. Player must investigate, to reopen the mine, so Relneth can resume his work, etc etc.

As far as the shopfront goes, unless there's a good reason for him to have sealed glass cases to display his merchandise, there'd be issues with having things out in the open while he was sleeping, and whatnot.

So... A furnace would be nice outside, the mine would work, I could force it into his basement (he'll need a chimney on his house, though...), or he could simply not have one a la A Fighting Chance in the Imperial City. A shopfront would be nice for him to work from, but there's issues with securing his merchandise, and I can work his upstairs into being a shopfront without too much effort.

As far as extra NPCs go, swell ^^ I've already got some semblance of a room set up for... whoever it ends up being... If the furnace is inside, though, that extra room is where it is going igh:

Let me know what you think of the exterior, and I will finish up my interior based on that. =)

Edit:

Unless you've already, for whatever reason, begun to add in the exterior smithing area and/or shopfront, don't bother. I've worked them into the house If you have, though, let me know that too, as I'd prefer to use them instead ^.^

Edit again:

I've added a chipper Argonian apprentice (the scandal!) to Relneth's repairs, and I'm having an AI issue. I would like him to gather ingredients from flora around Ebbedin from 7am to 2pm, and then head back into the shop for lunch. He heads outside ok, and even grabs the mushrooms growing on the side of a nearby barrel, but then he wedges himself next to that barrel =/ Is this merely a pathgrid issue with the exterior, and I should simply ignore it for now, or could there be another cause that I should be looking for?

On a side note, I'm not really clear on Ebbedin's stand on slavery, now that it is abolished... Should Relneth's and his apprentice's dialogue reflect some tension over Okan's race, or is it all nice and dandy in this Bright New Age?

Third edit:

On a related note to Okan-Shei's gathering issues, I am unsure how to make him deposit his finds into a container... Is there a simple way through AI packages to do so, or is something like that going to require some scripting? :eek:

Hopefully the last edit before bed... -.-

With merchant chests, should they be placed A la Oblivion, hidden outside the visible area, out of a player's reach, or more like Morrowind, where they are accessible by the player, although under heavy lock-and-key? Is there a standard that Silgrad Tower follows regarding that, or is it up to the individual?

I suppose, also, is there a better place for me to throw these random questions, or is simply editing my post as they pop up ok? ?(

[TheImperialDragon]

Well, I'll start from the top. Been busy...

I can edit the exterior, there's plenty of room for change. There is already an awning and a table already set up outside his house I believe, maybe you'll want to check that out in the ESM.

Ebbedin might not be going for the Iron Mine, rather a Kwama mine. It'll probably be an Iron mine if it is modded before any Kwama models or creatures are made.

I don't think there were slaves in TES3's Ebbedin, so I don't think you'd need to have any racial tension. Maybe the Argonian could have a story about being released from slavery elsewhere though, that might prove interesting. :yes:

I've never had to make an NPC drop items into a container, but I would suggest making a script that runs when the NPC approaches the barrel. Try setting it up so that the NPC is to travel to the barrel at X o'clock, then when the NPC finishes that package, run the script that removes the items the NPC collected (there are probably a few ways to do this, see below*).

* Try something that detects how much of ingredient X is in the inventory, then remove that many of ingredient X.

Like I said, I haven't actually done this, but I think it would do the trick. Let me know how it goes.

I'm fine with what you decide in terms of merchant container placement.

[SACarrow]

The nearby eggmine was the Drethi-Arah, right? I just looked it up on the CS; the D-A mine did have slaves within it. Now that I know that ST:TES4 is envisioned as more of a re-imagining than a straight-up sequel, people can do as they wish, but it might be cute to make the assistant one of the ones freed from the mine. Funny thing: I noticed an Argonian named Smart-Snake as a slave in Hlormaren in TES3 itself; this gets funnier if you pay a visit in ST:TES4 to the Steadhelm chapel.

Also, assuming my 644 lines of throat-shredding, poorly-voiced Argonian male dialogue pass muster, I can voice male Argonian ST NPCs. I want to finish up the 3 currently there once I find my tonsils from doing that part of the StGeneric quest.

That's all,
Steve

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by SACarrow
Now that I know that ST:TES4 is envisioned as more of a re-imagining than a straight-up sequel

That's more or less it. There's still going to be a few changes to reflect the timeline, like the destruction of Ald'Ruhn and the abolishment of slavery.

Originally posted by SACarrow
the D-A mine did have slaves within it.

I think those slaves were working for a group of hostile outlaws; the slaves were in the hidden part of the mine which was part of a quest for Vares (leader of Ebbedin). They weren't hired by any legal authorities in Ebbedin.

-

Kwama are creatures that produced Kwama Eggs, a nutritious edible popular on Morrowind.

In TES3, the outlaws were presumably hired by Fothas Gilnith (one of the locals) to poison the Kwama Queen of Ebbedin - each mine had a Kwama Queen, sort of like how each bee hive has a queen bee, or how ants have ant queens. Vares sends the player to investigate what's going on. There were two main endings: the player could either alert the authorities to Fothas after delving in the Kwama mine, or accept a bribe by Fothas to remain silent. Other endings could have been the result of killing the queen or Fothas.

[ImaJunryou]

So, I've just about finished with cluttering the shop, and a question has come up =)

Must I assign ownership to everything individually item-by-item, or is there a way to simply select a handful of things and assign ownership all at once? ?(

Beyond that, I think I simply have dialogue left to do, and to try and work out some strangeness with the AI, and then it is done! :goodjob:

edit: Also, how prolific is bonemold armor in Silgrad? I was thinking of adding a pair of boots to Relneth's work area, as a sort of work order. Too nice for Ebbedin? What about Orcish? I have added a cuirass with slightly reduced stats, called it damaged, and have also referred to that as a work order. I know that one of the guards (only guard?) in Ebbedin wears Orcish, but I don't know if he'd look Relneth up for repairs or take it out of town for that, or simply handle it himself.