Here's something to think about: when you live near the coast and look out to sea on a clear day, you always see ships for anchor in the distance. Vvardenfell, having quite a few harbors, should have some too.
I think I might try my hand at this myself, in Skyrim first of course. It shouldnt be hard, these ships don't need interiors or crewmen. (Similarly, there should be some dynamicism in the harbors. Some ships should be there on certain days, and gone on others. )
I have a question regarding the Dragonborn 'cinematic' where we stand aboard the Northern Maiden as it moves. The fact that there is no way to look at the sail suggests there is none. Do you think it is possible to have ships sailing in the distance from time to time? I feel this would add to the ambiance.
This is something I am quite passionate about. If you have any advice or reasons for me not to attempt this, I'd love to hear them. I am, by all means, a greenhorn modder. That, there, is one reason of course.
Satchboogie
PS: to what extent will mainland Morrowind be visible in the distance? Does anyone have estimates in terms of kilometres? Or miles.
Edit: fixed format, initially posted from smartphone.
Thanks for the helpful reply
Thanks for the helpful reply TheDarkPrince.
I'm no scripter either, although I enjoy figuring out how to make stuff like that work.
Years ago I spent nights salvaging scripts from one npc and creating many new ones from that in a game called Tibia for example.
I've posted a question regarding how to make these moving ships a reality on various forums, although I'm hesitant to try and contact Trainwiz himself for advice. (He made the mod you refer to, Transportato.)
I'll await replies and try to fix something up in Skyrim first, make some screenshots to post here, and then see from there.
If anyone has experience with scripting objects to move along a certain route I'd like to hear about it, the Creation Kit Wiki's tutorial is quite limited in this department.
Mod I refered to before:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/41279/?
Here's my code so far... the
Here's my code so far... the ship won't move yet. I'll post the script here from time to time in the hope that someone sees at a glance what my problem is. Remember, I'm very much a self-taught beginner with this :)
I'm going to keep experimenting with this, in the hope that I'll be able to create a plugin for Skywind with it when the time comes. Theres a lot of issues in my way, the foremost being that the script doesn't work yet, but also the fact that the ships don't really show up until they are quite close, even when FullLOD is enabled.
So they can't be too far away.
There's also the problem of Skyrims ships being all wrong(rolled up sails, no portholes or anything.)
Lastly, I want to add light sources to the moving ships during the nighttime, but as of yet I don't know how.
However, IF I can get this to work I'll be very happy.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Script as it is now. Not working. | 1.71 KB |
A thing I would like to add
A thing I would like to add is that if we are ever going to use such a plugin IN the main Skywind files, I would recommend to consult a modeller so that he \ they can make a low-poly version for distant LOD (just like Solitude city model and such). I do not know how it works exactly but it surely reduces the specs needed to play around with the thing!
Yes, I would definitely
Yes, I would definitely appreciate this :) I also need ships with rolled down sails at some point. But I'll only gather up the courage to ask for such a thing once I get this working.
I'm rather surprised at the lack of responses I've been getting on various Creation Kit/Papyrus forums where I posted my help request. Literally none :D
Hi Satchboogie!
Hi Satchboogie!
I, for one, would love to see such feature added to the main Skywind files. Some would say that we have to stay "as close as we can" to the original Morrowind yet my answer would be: haven't we gone a lil bit far from the Vanilla already?
Modders are making Morrowind to be as it should have been if it was released in 2011 - 2014 so I'll say that a few "new features" should be added without as many cares as those given up 'til now.
As per the chance to implement such a feature: Item appearances (as those boats would be static items) are not hard to implement; think of it as the "houses and furnitures" you are able to buy from the cities of Skyrim. Until you have paid, you see no new furnitures in your houses. A script runs along, check if you bought them, makes the furniture appears. Same would go with the boats anchored ashore.
I am no scripter for papyrus, but I guess It'd be something like :
check if day of the week == 1; if true -> object enabled, if false object -> disabled.
About the "moving ships", that would also be beautiful and not impossible. There are already some mods for skyrim out there that makes Ships sail and return from the Solitude docks so I'd talk to those modders for a good start.
Thank you for reading.