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The Elder Scrolls III MORROWIND: Water Life by abot
Tribunal OR Bloodmoon engine required
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Water Life is an attempt to mix the scripting techniques developed in
the "Where are all bird going?" plugin with the best aquatic creature
modding resources to bring more life into Morrowind waters.

This plugin mainly adds to Morrowind (most) peaceful aquatic creatures
based on the wonderful models & textures by Cait Sith, Lady Eternity &
Proudfoot, Brash.

The main goals of the plugin are:

- make waters and shore feel more alive, especially deep sea diving in
wilderness desert areas

- tolerable/dynamic fps hit

- no install/uninstall/reinstall quest/game consequences

- compatibility with all existing & future plugins, thanks to the
dynamic, real time placement/deletion of all items and water areas
recognition.

What makes this plugin really different is the way (with pros and cons)
creatures are placed in the world and the effort to make them more
"alive". You can hate or love this way of placing creatures, but I think
it's worth a try.


NOTE: if you see messages like "ab01_spawn creature not found" you can probably fix it visiting Seyda Neen
if for some reason you didn't already (e.g. different start location mods)
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Requirements
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This plugin requires Tribunal OR Bloodmoon (not the .esm checked, but
the engine must support automatic start scripts, delete and other
scripting functions non present in the original Morrowind).

It was compiled and tested with version 1.6.18.20 of Morrowind.

The plugin is set to be NOT dependant on Tribunal.esm/Bloodmoon.esm
loaded. This way, a unique plugin is compatible with both expansions.
Note for mod customization: if you recompile/resave it from TESCS
without declaring it dependant on Tribunal or Bloodmoon, you should
clean the (generated by TESCS) GMST (using TESToool for instance), or
set it as dependant from Tribunal.esm or Bloodmoon.esm (or avoid the
problem using the excellent "GMST Vaccine.esp" by Wrye)
http://mw.modhistory.com/download-37-14595

If you simply want change the plugin date to adjust its loading order,
I really suggest you use Mash
https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45439
or TESTool
http://mw.modhistory.com/download-13-5234
to do it instead of resaving it from TESCS.

For better interior water recognition, it is recommended to have
the 'Detect water level fix' set using Morrowind Code Patch
https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/19510


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Updates history
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Updates/changes in version 1.26
- abotWaterLifeTRaddon1912.esp compatible with Tamriel Rebuilding version >= 19.12
- tweaked some scripts

Updates/changes in version 1.25
- abotWaterLifeTRaddon1809.esp compatible with Tamriel Rebuilding version >= 18.09
- added one fishing rod to Balmora, Dralasa Nithryon: Pawnbroker
- tweaked creature hitch-hiking scripts

Updates/changes in version 1.24
- fixed a possible bug in ab01wltHitchScript script
- tweaked some sounds
- changed a couple of default options
- abotWaterLifeTRaddon1807.esp compatible with Tamriel Rebuilding version >= 18.07

Updates/changes in version 1.23
- fixed a possible sextant minutes display overflow
- couple small scripts tweaks
- abotWaterLifeTRaddon1709.esp compatible with Tamriel Rebuilding version >= 17.09

Updates/changes in version 1.22
- added abotWaterLifeTRaddon1612.esp compatible with Tamriel Rebuilding version >= 16.12
- changed Water Life book formatting, tuned for 1920x1080 resolution, Code Patch better typography
- more TR fresh water areas recognised
- better positioning of duck, goose.
- if using NOM, you can drink/autofill NOM water containers in (detected) fresh
water areas only or also when it rains/use melted snow.
Use the in-game configuration menu to change settings as usual.
- skipping frames code removed. It should work better with some other mods continuosly
restarting global scripts.
- slightly increased Cecaelia spawning probablility

Updates/changes in version 1.21
- added new containers and ingredients using Vurt's sponge and coral meshes/textures
(you can get Vurt's corals MGE mod here)
http://mw.modhistory.com/download-53-13914

- fixed abotWaterLifeTRAddon scripts overriding Cecaelia placement

- added creatures also to standard h2o_all_lev-2 leveled creature list

- tweaked meshes and scripts for improved stability



Updates/changes in version 1.20

- some minor scripting tweaks
- abotWaterLifeTRaddon.esp updated for compatibility with changed
TR_Data.esm used by Tamriel Rebuilt - Sacred East version.


Updates/changes in version 1.19

- better working antispawn ring

- better working gondoliers, gondoliers light (configurable)

- can use MCP GetWaterLevel fix for faster detection

- added lamp light to nocturnal gondoliers

- removed a unnecessary dialog info line

- sextant does not try to cheat distance on fast travel any more,
and speed is calculated on game time

- meshes optimization



Updates/changes in version 1.18

- added menu option to configure spawning of gondoliers (yes/No/not in Wilderness)

- updated NOM ingredient for ducks & geese

- fixed autoloot missing some sand coin

- fixed gondolier trips disabling previous player waterwalking

- recompressed some textures



Updates/changes in version 1.17

- added Arcimaestro Antares's Cecaelia

- some scripts optimizations

- reworked documentation

- fixed potentially crashing meshes


Updates/changes in version 1.16/1.15 to 1.16 patch

- ingredient changed for better compatibility with next NOM version

- fixed a bug in fishing scripts

- added nocturnal gondoliers (gondola is equipped with a lamp)

- added code to cope with evil player attacking gondoliers

- some script optimization and inventory loot fixing

- stripified some meshes

- reworked documentation


Updates/changes in version 1.15/1.14 to 1.15 patch

- fixed initial player position on gondolier trips

- better placing of ducks & geese (should go to water surface faster)

- Wizard Island detection based on cell name instead of coordinates so
to be compatible with relocated versions



Updates/changes in version 1.14/1.13 to 1.14 patch

- added interaction with gondoliers


Updates/changes in version 1.13/1.12 to 1.13 patch

- added Arcimaestro Antares' gondoliers

- fixed Manbou animation to swim a little lower

- added recognition of Tamriel Rebuilt Map 2 fresh water areas (Lake
Boethiah south area)

- ab01wlAntiSpawnRing should work better.

For anybody too lazy to read everything or search... Place a ring in
your (probably interior) cell to avoid creature spawning in the cell.
From the console: placeatpc ab01wlantispawnring 1 100 0 then you have to
exit/reenter the cell for this to work

From the editor: drop a ring inside the cell.


Updates/changes in version 1.12/1.11 to 1.12 patch

- snow melting: auto-filling NOM bottles now works also When it is
snowing and you are near a NOM fire,

- if you are using the last NOM 2.13.02 version, auto-filling NOM
bottles when it is raining now works without triggering the NOM message
"You don't need water now" and preserving the original NOM messages when
using wells.

- fixed possible disappearing of small water creatures when killed out
of water

- fixed (rare) possibility of creatures following you inside interiors

- changed blood texture to avoid possible big red blood stains when
fishing

- fixed small glitch in fishing code

- companions and guards should peacefully let you go fishing now

- removed extra file NOM2.12patch.esp, please use up-to-date NOM2.13.esp
or better


Updates/changes in version 1.11/1.10 to 1.11 patch

- fix/small crabs can be captured with the spear again

- fix/ should be better interfaced with last TR_Data.esm release

- fix/abotWaterLife.esm redated to avoid possible conflicts with
Morrowind.esm date

- better detection of water area near Port Telvanni in TR map 1


Updates/changes in version 1.10/1.9 to 1.10 patch

- for better compatibility with expansion plugins, the file is now a
master plugin. This should also simplify loading Necessities of
Morrowind after this plugin. Just replace the previous abotWaterLife.esp
with the last abotWaterLife.esm

- for all youngsters/impressionable/contemplative people, added a "Less
aggressive predators" configuration option to allow more contemplative
water trips

- for all lore or collision purists/somersault whales hating people,
added a "Spawn whales" configuration option. As with all other options,
you can change them real-time.

- now you can also configure if you want to spawn water palaces

- in standard Morrowind, the only things automatically spawned by the
engine in the sea wilderness seem to be slaughterfish and (at higher
level) dreugh schools. Now the "New fishing-rod compatible
slaughterfish" option not only will replace behavior of next generation
of slaughterfish, but also dreughs. You can make those engine ever
spawning slaughterfishes/dreughs less annoying using the "Less
aggressive predators" option if you like.

- configuration menu reworked for easier options navigation and display
of changes with back << and forth >> buttons.

- added advice message when bleeding near predators

- added Dwemer Diving Helm and Dreugh Water Breathing Helm

- added precious submarine mineral veins on some rocks

- added jars, crates, barrels, urns, various shipwreck debris, drowned
corpses & skeletons (many thanks to JAEGER for ideas, suggestions &
testing help)

- added BookRotate compatible script to Water Life Book (thanks Cydine &
Maboroshi Daikon!)

- reworked loot, treasures/locks should be better scaled with player
level

- sextant can now be used while swimming (not when diving) to allow for
easier treasure searching, and does not repeat warning messages

- added recognition of Tamriel Rebuilt Map 1 and Silgrad
Tower/Blacklight fresh water areas

- better whales AI and placing

- fixed possible unsafe item disabling, should be much more stable now
than version 1.8
- fixed possible freezing when attacked while hitch-hiking

- fixed killerwhale loot (thanks Ershatz!)

- added a small Daedric/Common language hint section in Water Life book


Updates/changes in version 1.9/1.8 to 1.9 patch

- added a wonderful gift from Mordicus, a renewed, colorful Water Life
Book :-) Note. you can see all the new content of the book from a game
in progress, but to be able to see the new book jacket you probably need
to start a new game.

- added special mapped treasure chests...

- added display of last noted coordinates to the sextant (thanks to
shakti for the idea!), this should be useful to track back a previously
visited place.

- due to people complaining, snails are no more spawned by default. If,
like me, you think they are worth the warning animation message, just
re-enable them using the configuration option.

- added (configurable) bubbles effect on 1st person view loot compatible
with The Lys' Resources Enhanced. You can get The Lys' Resources
Enhanced here:
http://mw.modhistory.com/download-37-2790

- option to avoid possible shortsword skill increase while using the
fishing rod, or let the skill rise in a way compatible with Galsiah's
Character Development (many thanks to Galsiah for the fixes!)

- wrong creature placement probability reduction

- general code tweaks/loot mechanics improvements, should be more stable
and generate less saved game data.

- added extra file NOM2.12patch.esp to change NOM so to use standard,
not scripted leveled lists (see notes on changes for version 1.8 for
info about possible problems with scripted leveled lists and how to
solve them). Correct .esp loading order is: abotWaterLife.esp NOM
2.12.esp / GAM NOM 2.12.esp NOM2.12patch.esp

- added Wrye's Mash creature remover so you can easily clean your
savegame from creatures spawned by Waterlife.


Updates/changes in version 1.8

- replaced scripting changes to leveled lists with standard in-editor
changes.

- changed the slaugterfish spawning configuration option

- added the option to avoid spawning the creatures giving (unharmful but
possibly annoying) animation warnings (snails)

- removed automatic addition of a configuration ring to the player's
inventory if the ring is no more present. If you loose it, you can add
another one typing
player->additem ab01wlConfigRing 1
from the game console.

- a few other code stability optimizations

Version 1.8 is mainly a fix for reported problems (many thanks to
DarkDragon for realizing this and helping with the fixes) when adding to
a in-progress game other mods changing the leveled items in a non
scripted way. Please, see
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=206075 or the
thread copy Save Games and Leveled Lists.txt in the \Data Files\Docs
folder.

If you have a saved game with this kind of problems to clean, here is
the suggested procedure:

Make (as always) a backup copy of your savegame. Load up the save in
Enchanted Editor
(http://mw.modhistory.com/download--1662). Look
for LEVI (Items Leveled) or LEVC (Creatures Leveled) entries, and delete
all of them, then save the (now) cleaned save game. Then, as usual,
replace the old WaterLife.esp with the new version, paying attention to
keep your mod loading order with a proper mod administration tool (Mash,
TESTool...). Then, as usual when changing mod configuration, regenerate
your Mashed Lists.esp (or Merged_Leveled_lists.esp if you are using
TESTool+Aerolorn's resequencer)

Sadly, as you can see reading the thread, it seems I am not the only one
who was unaware of the problem, and if you are using other mods having
the same problem, this will not be probably be solved.

For anyone interested, a patch to NOM using standard levelled lists is
included from version 1.9 of Water Life. Just load NOM2.12.esp after
abotWaterLife as usual, load NOM2.12patch.esp after NOM2.12.esp, then
regenerate your leveled lists as usual.

Remember that your generated Mashed Lists.esp (or
Merged_Leveled_lists.esp if you are using TESTool+Aerolorn's
resequencer) should be loaded last. If not, change the mod dates
accordingly.


Updates/changes in version 1.7

- added redwoodtreesprite's resources: chitons, sand dollars (I've
called them "sand coins" though), sea stars, shells, snails! (see
detailed credits in \Docs folder), and a lot of related ingredients.

- added LadyLuck's sponge ingredients

- added some Daduke's/redwoodtreesprite's wilderness marine ingredients
(and unicorn horn resized as a nice shell)

- added Corv's feather ingredient for all you aquatic rangers ;-)

- scripts tweaks: spawning errors reduction, improved speed & stability,
better crawling of crabs & snails

- added no-spawning rings (experimental, mainly for modders) Place a
ring in your cell to avoid creature spawning in the cell. From the
console: placeatpc ab01wlantispawnring 1 100 0 From the editor: drop a
ring inside the cell.

- updated ingredients icons thanks to Dogfish

- changed leveled ingredients probability

- added fresh water recognition of Wizard Island & Sea of Destiny areas
( experimental, still you should not see tropical fish under WI icy
lake)

- updated & moved documentation file to Data Files\Docs folder (more
Mash friendly... by the way, go GET Mash!)

- inverted ndib black pearl icon alpha channel (thanks to detritus2004
& Mordicus hint)

- increased blue whales base size by 0.2

- increased min size of water palaces by 0.05

- scripted ducks & geese sounds should overlap less sounds now

- increased dolphin speed when hitch-hiking

- decreased turtle speed a little

- increased turtle probability a little

- increased water palaces probability a little

- sunfish should be less common in low water

- sonar creature empty hit voice moved middle way for better
compatibility

- replaced Fidel's water palace textures with better-compressed textures
by Erstam


Updates/changes in version 1.6/1.x Patch:

- added cute red crabs from Dragon's Breech

- If you dive enough, you may find deep water palaces!

- added FAQ section from TES forums to this file

- added ancient dreugh

- added grom ingredient

- no more levitation/teleportation disabling when hitch-hiking

- predators are normally a little less aggressive but can feel your
bleeding, and become more aggressive... so beware, and heal yourself!

- predators will "eat" more preys

- better recognition of player spear fishing

- slight changes to leveled items

- reduced treasure chests lock level a little

- reduced seastars probability a little

- script tweaks


Updates/changes in version 1.5/1.x Patch:

- tweaked spawning engine to improve creature placements (hopefully a
big reduction of misplaced creatures, thanks for the error reports,
Ashemanu!)

- limited "cold" zone to be more west of Sheogorad. Bloodmoon should
probably be more to the north, it is same latitude as Sheogorad probably
only due to the limitations of the Morrowind map)

- spawning frequency in interiors reduced to avoid problems in small
caves

- tweaked AIFlee settings to be more compatible with Wakim AI flee game
settings

- now you can autodrink/autofill NOM bottles even with a spell ready
(you still can't with a sword ready)

- tweaked initialization scripts

- removed items from Foryn Gilnith shack

- sea stars and barnacles should be spawned more near water

- now you can configure spawning things down to 5 min FPS; not suggested
everywhere, but maybe this way you will be able to see a duck near
Balmora Expanded with low specs machines

- intro and water life book text revised, thanks to princess_stomper,
Yelena and HarryManback at TES forums

Updates/changes in version 1.4/1.x Patch:

- removed configuration menu autorun to avoid compatibility problems
with NOM or other mods using autorun configuration menus. You can access
Water Life configuration menu any time you want simply equipping the
<Water Life Ring>

- now your Short Blade skill is stored when you equip a Fishing Rod and
reset when you unequip it, so it should increase that skill no more

- added NOM autodrink/NOM water containers autofill option in known
fresh water zones and when raining! (you MUST have Necessities Of
Morrowind loaded AFTER Water Life for this to work)

- added the option to enable/disable NOM autodrink/NOM water containers
autofill option from Water Life configuration menu

- now ducks and geese should appear day only

- tweaked predators AI stats a little

- removed autocalculate attribute from jellyfish and octopus spells

- tweaked creatures placing engine, now spawn in front percent factor
works more like expected, and bigger things should be spawned mostly
behind the player


Updates/changes in version 1.3/1.2 Patch:

- fixed problem of dying "sonar" npc sounds heard by some users

- fixed problems with bubbles water breathing spell not ending correctly

Updates/changes in version 1.2/1.1 Patch:

- fixed issue with being able to fish even without baits

- last wrong creatures placing out of water issues should be hopefully
fixed

- code/items placing tweaks

- added x 3 spawning fish factor to the configuration menu (not
recommended, intended only for fast preview)

Updates/changes in version 1.1/1.0 Patch:

- great code & stability improvement (update to this version is strongly
recommended)

- fixed swimming crabs

- fixed barnacles angle

- fixed repeating message using sextant on cloudy nights

- fixed wrong placing of creatures out of water

- manatees should jump no more

- added x 0.75 spawning fish factor to configuration menu

- now a few creatures are spawning even in pools. You can't always see
them, but you can always try to fish for them ;-)

- added hitch-hiking for some peaceful sea creatures :-)


Updates/changes in version 1.0/Beta Patch:

- Thanks to Cait, Angel Fish mesh animation 100% fixed (Yay!)

- Major changes in spawning engine: now creatures can spawn even when
you are out of water (configurable by menu)

- no more need to deep dive to encounter big ocean fish, and more
homogeneous distribution of creatures

- a configurable % of fish can be spawned in front of player

- configurable spawn speed factor

- you can fish even when out of water

- you can use the Fishing Rod from your favorite boat or ship

- you can enable/disable auto fish spawning with/without Fishing Rod
equipped from configuration menu

- fish caught with Fishing Rods will auto-loot

- Now you can use Crab Meat, Scrib Jerky and Kwama Cuttle as bait with
Fishing Rods

- Fishing Rods included in a more appropriate leveled list

- Fishing Rods no more need sneaking, have a longer reach, and use a
less-combat luring system

- fixed randomization of fish loot

- Fishing Academy fishing skill compatibility added

- Sextant is activated when equipped

- <Water Life> configuration ring added, you can start the configuration
menu anytime/anywhere simply equipping it. Like the <Tempus Fugit Ring>,
it will auto-unequip after use

- improved plants/rocks/seafloor items vertical placing (should fix the
majority of floating issues near steep slopes).

- better placements of big rocks in exterior waters, no big rocks in
interior waters

- thanks to the improved placing routine, more rocks/flora in
medium/deep water

- improved crabs walking (they should "swim" less and walk more now)

- lowered jellyfish sting spell power a little

- now you can enable/disable creature spawning in interiors from the
configuration menu; good for people not wishing to share their private
swimming pools with fish ;-)

- changed initialization/configuration script to be less frame intensive

- Changed meshes for sonar spawners: now they use an invisible npc: and
the only thing that could be rarely spot is the npc shadow, instead of
the "phantom" hermit crab used before

- some new/changed content for Water Life Book. It now also magically
reports the fishing skill of the reader a la Fishing Academy.

- fixed missing icons transparency

- New style slaughterfish aggressivity/power increased

- No changes to original slaughterfish if not chosen by config menu

- added Cait's duck13 animation mesh missing from beta (sorry)

Updates/changes in Beta:

- removed Morrowind4Fish "giant" trophies (still 100% compatible with
Morrowind4Fish, and Wilderness 2.1 too)

- lowered minimum in water depth to start creature spawning to -60
units. This was necessary to avoid problems with small pools
recognition.

- warm area enlarged so to include Odai river mouth

- NOM (Necessities Of Morrowind) compatible/ingredients added (crab,
fish)

- modified/added plants, statics & ingredients (algae, kollops, rocks,
interactive air bubbles...)

- modified/added creatures

- modified/added items (new dynamic treasure chests,

improved shipwrecks)

- improved spawning engine + interior water recognition

- configurable auto gathering of new ingredients / spear fishing
facility

- fishing rods! now you can go fishing even pesky slaughterfish

- configurable minimum FPS before adding a new creature

- configurable slaughterfish spawning

- in game configuration menu

- A small illustrated book

- improved version of my previous "Sextants" plugin included

- improved version of my previous "Tempus Fugit ring" plugin included


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Hints & Tips
**********************************************************************

- If you loose your <Water Life> configuration ring, relax, you can find
another one in Foryn Gilnith Shack, Seyda Neen.

- In default configuration the script check for water areas around to
spawn fish. You can tune this by configuration menu, enabling the check
only when you have the Fishing Rod equipped. If you unequip the Fishing
Rod/disable out of water spawning, the script will spawn only when you
are at about -60 into water, so the overhead is minimum when out of
water.

- Be careful when fishing with people around; Fishing Rods do almost no
damage, but have a long range!

- Fishing is meant to be a lone sport. Better not have companions/guards
around stealing your prey.

- The spear-fishing facility and the fishing rods work only with my
new-added water creatures; in fact, all code is attached to the
creature. So, if you are using other mods containing the same Cait's
creatures (Wilderness 2, Morrowind4Fish, Cait's Sea and so on), these
features will not work with creatures added by other mods.

You can easily recognize a creature added from my mod switching to 3d
person view, opening the game console and clicking on the creature: the
console window title will show the creature name; my creatures have the
ab01 prefix. Anyway, if you are trying to use a fishing rod with the
right creature (a fish introduced by my mod), you should see explanation
messages telling you if you are acting the right way. So, if you don't
have any Crab Meat or Scrib Jerky or Kwama Cuttle bait, a message should
tell you that you need it to go fishing; if you are in too deep water, a
message should tell you, and so on. If no messages appear, it's probably
the wrong fish (not a small enough fish of my mod, or not a fish of my
mod at all). If you have the bait and the fish is from my mod, try
aiming & hitting it until you feel some nibbles. You should be able to
lure the fish until it is near enough to catch it (pay attention to
people/creatures around, fishing rods do 1 damage but have a GREAT
range). Good luck & enjoy fishing, it's great especially from a safe row
boat (but you can even fish from MadMax ultimate galleon).

- Be careful with ducks & geese, now they will follow you in/out of
water if you bother them. Also, if you are lucky enough, geese can
reserve some surprise...

- This plugin works great with: Necessities of Morrowind by Taddeus &
Nymeria (but beware, without the patch NOM can mess with levelled items)
Water Seraph race by millinghordesman, Where Are All Birds Going by
abot, Ultimate Galleon by MadMax, Sea of Solstheim by Detritus2004,
Resources Enhanced by TheLys.

I really suggest you try these with Water Life.

Ultimate Galleon, Stormrider sailing mods use attack-disabled/disabled
when not in use invisible collision detect NPC placed around the boats,
so they don't react if hit by Fishing Rod or if surrounded by aggressive
fish).

- This plugin is compatible with: Dale Stocker's Merfolk, Stormrider by
Kellick Stormcrow, The Wilderness Mod 2.x, Morrowind4Fish Beta, Sea of
Destiny, Fishing Academy, SellnSail... This plugin should be compatible
with almost everything ;-)

- The electric water netch is a citation from the Sword Of The Perithia
TC by Andre Sergoyan, first mod that made me wish to be a Morrowind
modder.

**********************************************************************
Saved Games
**********************************************************************

This plugin should not invalidate your old saved games. If you don't
want to use it any more, simply uncheck it. 99% of stuff is new /
created dynamically by script, so there should be no conflict with other
mods.

IMPORTANT: PREVIOUS VERSION USERS READ SECTION BELOW:

if you experience problems after updating, use a "clean" saved game.

1. If you have not done it yet, add the line

AllowYesToAll=1

to your Morrowind.ini file under [General] section. This could avoid you
a lot of confirmation clicks.

2. Make a backup of the old abotWaterLife.esp and of your save game

3. Go to a small interior cell without water

4. Save the game and exit.

5. Restart the game, and uncheck the previous version of this mod from
the Data Files menu before you load the game just saved.

6. Load your saved game. You will probably have warning messages, but
thanks to the AllowYesToAll=1 line, you can ignore all with 1 click)

7. Once you're back in the game without the mod loaded, save the game
again.

8. replace the old version of abotWaterLife with the new, updated
version If you want to use the NOM autodrink/autofill in fresh water
option, be sure to load Necessities Of Morrowind AFTER Water Life
(eventually set abotWaterLife.esp file date/time accordingly)

9. Reload the last, clean saved game, hopefully you will not loose much
of your belongings. I am sorry, too many changes to save alpha/beta
stuff.


**********************************************************************
Known glitches/bugs
**********************************************************************

Because of the way these creatures move, first time a snail is generated
Morrowind and the editor will give you the following warning: "AnimGroup
"WalkForward" for "CLONE RTS_CaitSnail_" was exported with "Animate in
Place" from MAX."

This has no effect on gameplay at all, and the creatures animate
perfectly ingame.

Be sure to have a line AllowYesToAll=1 put in the Morrowind.ini file to
be able to check only one popup warning box.

note: from version 1.8, you can choose from the configuration menu to
avoid spawning the creatures giving animation warnings (snails)

note: from version 1.9 ,due to people complaining, snails are no more
spawned by default. If, like me, you think they are worth the warning
animation message, just re-enable them using the configuration option.

Animated treasure chests have a wide open radius, so avoid opening them
from the back else you risk getting stuck. It is also possible that you
get stuck into a generated water palace, it should be rare, but it may
happen. If you get stuck, you can just use the console command fixme or
tcl to temporarily toggle game collisions... or just reload previous
save.

Sometimes you could catch aquatic creatures crawling out of water...
they should disappear as soon as you look in another direction.

Cait's Whales have known animation size problems (difficult to hit,
player can walk through...). I decided to keep them anyway because I
love them, so please don't ask.

Sometimes creatures seem to freeze during AI recalculation... be
patient, they usually find a way... especially if you don't look at
them.

The Fishing Rod is a short blade, instead of a blunt weapon, mainly for
the less strange effect of the shadow cast by the engine.

There is a small still noticeable animation jump on Cait's ducks & geese
entering/exiting from water. I hope those who understand what's behind
the scenes will forgive me.

I was in doubt if writing a sequel to "ABC" for Barbarians: "S is for
Sextant...", then I decided to dare a sort of diary book; English is not
my language, so forgive that kind of mistakes.

Fishing Academy/Sell and Sail mods use invisible ship collision
detection NPCs that are not attack disabled so they can attack
player/fish. Try to avoid hitting them with the Fishing Rod (being
invisible, I know it's difficult without cheating with TCB console
command).

There has been reports of creatures spawning in wrong places: due to the
placing method, this can't be avoided 100% (but it should be really
rare).

- if you loose your Water Life book, you can buy one at Balmora, from
the Pawnbroker Dralasa Nithryon.

From version 1.8 standard leveled list are used instead of (buggy)
scripted leveled lists (see Updates/changes in version 1.8for more
info). This means, same as with every other mod using leveled lists, you
need to regenerate your Mash or TESTool merged leveled lists to have
lists work as intended after upgrading.

Please signal all bugs/suggestions you can think of. You can contact me
at Elder Scrolls forums or by email.


**********************************************************************
Known Conflicts
**********************************************************************

There can be a slight conflict with mods modifying the slaughterfish
script. If you load such a mod after Water Life, you will not be able to
go fishing slaughterfish/make them less aggressives; not a critical
conflict at all, but good to know).
So far the mods I know changing the standard slaughterfish script
are: Water Life, Creatures by PirateLord, Huntermod by Martin Bohnet,
Morrowind Creatures by Master X. Last loaded of these mods will override
the slaughterfish script, so choose as you like.

A recommendation: if you install a mod using older version of Cait's
angel fish files after this plugin, you'd better restore the fixed files
(dated 2005) provided with Water Life to avoid the angel fish missing
death animation error.


**********************************************************************
Credits
**********************************************************************

My first thanks for models, textures and support to: Arcimaestro
Antares, Brash, Brillo, Cait (extra thanks to her for fixing the Angel
Fish animation), Corv, Daduke, Detritus2004, Dogfish, Erstam, Fidel,
Kagrenaz, kishinju, Korrow, Lady Eternity, LadyLuck, lochnarus,
LordOverKill, Max_aka_NOBODY, Mordicus, Nymeria, Proudfoot, Qarl,
redwoodtreesprite, SNAPCASE, Starcon5, Srikandi, Taddeus, TommyKhajiit,
Vurt (if I forgot someone, I apologize and please, let me know).

Thanks to Corv for letting me use the feather ingredient so this mod and
Ultimate Ranger can go together well.

Second thanks for MadMax and Zappara, your scripts has been a great
inspiration source; a special thank to MadMax also for making his last
masterpiece Ultimate Galleon as compatible as possible to this plugin.

Then I wanna thank Mordicus for the french translation of this mod
(harder than expected by us both) and for the precious feedback.

Last but not least, I want to thank all people giving
feedback/testing/ideas/support at the TES forums and by mail;
improvements are heavily based on your precious feedback: Abaraxas,
Anghardel67, Apophis2412, Arsonide, Ashemanu, Ava, bl4k3, blake.,
BlindEye, blooo, bluntfang, brady228, Brrrtje, BungaDunga, Caine, Canus,
Case, catman the raven, chojin, Cyrodiil, DagothUhr, Darnammu, DARoot,
dilord, Dimitri Mazieres, DJ_Antogator, doe, efin, Eidolon, Eirinjas,
Enslaved, FallingStar, Flatliner, FofA, fragonard, Galeth, Gen_Lee, Goalie8,
GrayskiesRooster, harborgolfer, HarryManback, Hellbishop, highpressure,
Illtempered, ix-ir, JAEGER, Jarrod, JayProgrammer, Kagz, Keket,
killersquid, Korana, Korrow, LaTiTi, LazyAshSlave, littledoggey,
Mahatma_Dandee, Marbred, Matthew_Kaine, mfelizandy, Nigedo,
Nimrod_Flamehair, Orc_Hunter, Pester, Pseron Wyrd, princess_stomper,
Raveren, Renzeekin, RizzenWsV, scifiguy52, SkyGuy, Sarafan,
SATAN_OF_PDS, seden, S'Viirr, SerialKiller, Shanjaq, Silver_Falcon, some
dumb guy, SSJ4 Goku, sunsi, suzaku, Sven_the_Llama, SveNitoR, Taurusaud,
TehTufty, Telesphoros, Tempered, tetchy, The_inwah, Thrall, tx365,
Tyndale, Varrdlich-DamaGus, Vivli, Yelena (again, if I forgot someone,
I apologize)

This plugin, like many others, could not exist without the info found in
the invaluable "Morrowind Scripting for Dummies", a manual for the TES
Construction Set Scripting Language by GhanBuriGhan and "Morrowind Mod
Maker's Manual" by Edwardsm

Also, debugging random generated items can be a nightmare; without
Bink's QuickChar plugin it would have been a longer nightmare (thanks
Bink!)

A huge thank you also to MentalElf for TesFiles, awesome mod-packaging
tool!


**********************************************************************
Permissions
**********************************************************************
Used resources: ( author, availability: * = should ask author). Also,
please read the info inside Docs folder.

BookArt\abot ( abot )
Icons\abot ( abot, Dogfish, redwoodtreesprite )
Icons\Cait_Misc ( Cait, Proudfoot, Kagrenaz )
Icons\Detritus (Detritus2004 )
Icons\FKA ( Corv *)
Icons\LL ( LadyLuck )
Icons\NoM (
Taddeus, Nymeria * )
Icons\RTS ( redwoodtreesprite # )
Meshes ( Brillo #)
Meshes\1s5 ( Starcon5, LordOverKill, Max_aka_NOBODY,
Qarl)
Meshes\abot ( reworked Startcon5 sextant, Lady E, Vurt, Bethesda
meshes, reworked Fidel palace)
Meshes\abot\aa ( reworked Arcimaestro Antares meshes )
Meshes\abot\vurt ( reworked Vurt meshes )
Meshes\Barabus ( barabus )
Meshes\Cait_Farm ( Cait, Proudfoot, Kagrenaz )
Meshes\Cait_Misc ( Cait )
Meshes\Cait_Polar ( Cait, Proudfoot, Kagrenaz )
Meshes\Cait_Sea (Cait, Proudfoot, Kagrenaz )
Meshes\DB ( Lady Eternity & Proudfoot; free for modding if you download
full Dragon's Breech Total conversion )
Meshes\DD (Daduke # )
Meshes\FKA ( Corv *)
Meshes\DD (Daduke # )
Meshes\Detritus ( Detritus2004 * )
Meshes\FKA ( Corv *)
Meshes\LadyE ( Lady E. )
Meshes\LadyL ( LadyLuck )
Meshes\RTS ( Cait, Korrow, lochnarus, TommyKhajiit )
Sound\Cr\Cait_Farm ( Cait, Kagrenaz )
Sound\abot ( abot, Arcimaestro Antares)
Sound\abot\Cr ( Cait, abot )
Sound\AnCr (Arcimaestro Antares)
Textures\AnCr (Arcimaestro Antares)
Textures\v_ (Vurt)

Complete info for redwoodtreesprite's modder resources is inside the
Data Files\Docs folder. Please take a look at it.

When possible/not conflicting, I put unmodified resources in the
original/resembling author name folders.

Not (*) models and textures (original, standard and reworked) should
be free to use for Morrowind modders with usual credits for the autors.

For (#) models and textures check original info in Docs folder.

For (*) models and textures use you should ask authors (there should be
no problems, they are all kind).

The fishing rod, sextant and water palace are the result of my
part-time/sneaking tampering with a 3dstudio installation. The original
meshes are by Bethesda, Starcon5 and Fidel, I just stripped/moved/scaled
stuff, so if you want to use them don't forget to credit the original
authors.

For complete credits about Arcimaestro Antares' Cecaelia creature, see the
original info in Docs folder.


You have my full permission to use things I introduced in this mod in
any way you like. Credit is not necessary - but would be nice.

No permission needed for uploading/translating this mod, anyway a mail
/PM at TESForums to make me aware of it will be appreciated :-)

For obvious lack of time, I guarantee uploading of official updates of
this plugin only at my site (currently
http:/abitoftaste.altervista.org/morrowind/
) and one of the major modding sites (currently
http://morrowind.nexusmods.com/
).



**********************************************************************
Historical FAQ (extract from releases history at TES forums)
**********************************************************************

Q: Whats the difference between this one, and the already released
aquatic mod by lady E? A: Water Life is an attempt to mix the scripting
techniques developed in the "Where are all bird going?" plugin with the
best aquatic creature modding resources to my knowledge and taste. It's
based mainly on creatures modeled by Cait, previously included by Brash
in Morrowind4Fish plugin and by Cait/Kagrenaz in various other plugins;
there are also a few models by Lady E, jellyfish and great shark if I
recall correctly. The main difference is the way ( with pros and cons)
creatures are placed in the world and the effort to make them more
"alive". You can hate or love this way of placing creatures; I think
it's worth a try. If you are afraid of the big download, maybe you can
try the birds plugin using similar concepts

Q: How does the animals behave in this mod, compared to other sealife
mods!!?? A: There is an attempt to implement a sort of prey/predator
behavior, not only aggressive monster vs. player or peaceful birds like
creatures. This is limited by the game engine, but given the player-
centric point of view of this plugin, the workaround predator attack
player->prey attack predator can still give an acceptable feel.

Q: As far as the spawning ship recks I think that could be a bad idea do
to the fact that it would be hard to determine if its a real one or not
when your looking for one quest related. Then I dont know what it looks
like exactly so Ill see later. A: Well, don't think these shipwrecks can
be confused with standard ones, no doors to enter (and different sizes).
There is still the (rare) possibility of a randomly generated shipwreck
crashing with standard quest one, but you only need to move away enough
from generated one to make it disappear from the world (imagine loosing
your direction on deep sea wilderness), so it should be no real problem.

Q: Fish tended to have the "stuck swimming into shore" issue more often
(noted especially with Haze, Amango Salamon, Trout). Most would turn
around and go back into the deeper waters, but it would take 'em 20-40
seconds. Small issue, as I see it with every water life mod. A: Yes, you
can script AI to try new routes, often avoiding permanent stuck, but it
requires long engine calculations. I think this is a necessary
compromise

Q: I had a mod active that added a bridge in seyda neen and I was
swimming behind it, hunting crabs and napolean fish (those cuties) when
suddenly three shovelnose's spawned and I hadn't seen any for about half
an hour, is there some way to make some fish spawn less than others?
I've only seen two sharks so I'm guessing there is. This isn't really a
complaint but I just thought I'd report my happenings back to you, if
they're any help at all. Also, jellyfish, I've only ever seen one, but I
have been swimming in shallow water, do they spawn more in the deeper
water?
A: Every creature has a configurable probability to be randomly
spawned, so this can be trimmed, but it's always possible that for some
periods a creature will be spawned more or not spawned at all, so what
you experienced is pretty normal (and besides, I think this on the
distance adds to the variety); medium/deep sea water spawns a lot of
different creatures, so it's normal that some of them seem to appear
rarely (single creature probability can be 4%). My main concern is to
balance attacking predators versus defending preys (well, giving the
fact that preys defend in packs, predators seem to need some stats
pumping)

Q: - Too many whales. Besides I don't like the jumping and
summersaulting animations (ever seen a bluewhale making a summersault?),
whales should be encountered VERY rarely, but in your mod it can happen
that there are 3 big whales and a few orcas around at the same time.
Encountering a big whale should be a very rare sensation. (Any way of
disabling Caits whalejumping anims?)
A: Well, whales are one of the reasons that made me start this mod.
I really love them, but being so
huge and so "elaborate" in vertical evolutions, they had big problems in
other mods using them. I thought that lowering their size a little and
making them appear only in deep (well, relative to standard Morrowind
water depth) water could avoid stuck problems. Then I tried disabling
the jumps... I suddely realized how I was missing them. So, maybe I will
probably reduce the jump probability for non-humpback whales, but don't
wanna disable it completely. Did you try following a singing-jumping
humpback whale at sunset? (you need the debug flight ring or something
similar to be fast enough, but we are debugging after all, and these
huge beasts are animated so fast). And orcas should be looking for
whales cuties. Maybe I have to trim things a little, but this is what
I'd like to reach, small whales families.

Q: A bug with a killerwhale. It tried to attack me (at least it looked
like it). It ended being stuck above my head, rapidly changing
directions resulting in a flicker. The only way i could get rid of it
was to disable it via console. This happened twice.
A: Yes, it happened to me also.
I initially thought it was related with the AI/combat
settings, but it never happens to sharks, so I fear is an animation
problem, don't know if I can fix it, I'll try. I even thought about not
using the killerwhales, but I like them very much.

Q: ... I still can't explain the crab invasion in Seyda Neen but I'm
sure the answer will come...
A: I think it's due to the AI path grid in
Seyda Neen being so near to the water. Crabs wandering radius is long
enough to enjoy a walk on Seyda Neen. It may be considered a funny way
to make guards earn their money.

Q: Creatures disapear well I'm not sure when they disapear but sometimes
another creature spawns in the place of another one. So my question is
would it be possible to make a creatuer disapear if another one touches
it or after killing it.
A: A creature should disappear when you are at a
distance about 5500/5800 units and NOT looking at it. The script to
determine if player is looking at a creature is Horatio's one taken from
MSFD8, it's fast enough and effective, but has a rough 45 degrees resolution
step; so it's possible that at certains angles, especially looking
around fast, you can CATCH something vanishing. If this happened STARING
at a creature, then it's probably a bug I have to care to. I was in
doubt on making creatures disappear immediately after death, but I
thought that normal creature deletion when player was far enough could
be a more realistic approach (well, a big killed shark should not vanish
so easily). I am oriented on making small container creatures like
seastars directly disappear in front of the player after looting a la
"herbalism", this can be justified by the small dimension of the
crumbling container and is far more convenient (you don't have the
problem to remember what you have looted on your picking work).

Q:Additions/ideas: One of the iconic images/ideas of the deep seas are
sharks. The sharks are done pretty well although the Giant White Shark's
(Great White Shark?) head/jaw and gills need some work I think, the eyes
are too bugged out and the teeth and jaws just look wrong, as a
signature fish this is so worth getting someone to improve it.
A: Well,
I would be glad to find some good modeler/graphic willing to do it.
There are a lot of possible model improvements, especially regarding
combat animations (Cait models were not aimed at this I suppose).
Anyway, I think the combat animation of Lady E big shark is still the
best one, so I wanna keep it.

Q:A couple of critter ideas: Kraken, giant aggressive octopusses of the
deep.
A:In the absence of a squid model, I was thinking about it myself;
being not a modeler, if I manage to obtain a big enough scaled one with
no collision problems by tesc/scripting I'll give it a try.

Q:Giant angler fish (the fish with huge heads and teeth and a light as
a lure infront of their teeth). Have the light highly visible and the
fish invisible until it attacks as the player comes to investigate,
another good one for scaring the pants off the player.
A: Yum... models, please!

Q: - I'm not too sure about the penguins on Solstheim. The entire place
has a Scandinavian/North Pole feel to them, in which Emperor Penguins
seem out of place to me. I haven't heard anyone else bring this up, so
it's probably just me.
A: If we want to strictly adhere to Morrowind
lore, very few of these creatures could fit. I'm trying to reproduce a
realistic fres/salt/cold/temperate/warm environment positioning and a
realistic enough behavior, but it's all related to Morrowind actual
geography, so no south pole equivalence... and I love those penguins too
much to remove them gladly. If others (many many others) complain about
it, we will see.

Q: - Maybe add one or two quests to encourage the players to go out and
get wet? The most basic one could have some of the alchemists having you
go out and gather shark teeth, turtle's eggs or whatever. I have zero
experience in making mods myself, but would be happy to provide plot and
dialogue for a more advanced type of quest. Now, because I have zero
modding experience, I have no idea how much extra work this is compared
to what you've done already. Do not feel offended if it is really,
really much!
A: This is a good idea, but actually I have other
priorities (= suggestions based fixes & placing engine improvement), and
I'd like to have quests as external themed mods, playable with or
without this mod loaded. A great example is Dale Stocker's Merfolks mod.
We will see, maybe someone else more skilled than me with quests and
english language could find it interesting.

Q: -All the creatures seen and mentioned so far exist on earth. Maybe
give some of them a more 'Morrowind' feel? This could even be something
relatively uncomplex like kelp-type shading on the Great Whites, or
putting a prehistoric turtle's head on the turtles?
A: My graphic skills are limited to (bad) retexturing, so no modeling,
sorry; maybe some reskinning.

Q: -I'm pretty sure I saw a shark do the flipper thing as well.
A: Actually they LEARN from dolphins. And, if they see a bird, they even
catch it on the fly... ;-) No, you probably have seen a killerwhale or a
big dolphin

Q: -Maybe include a giant slaughterfish in your mod?
A: A really tough Old Blue Fin? not a bad idea.

Q: -The item you get for killing a perch is called 'suziki'. Is this a
Japanese recipe or something? I didn't get it
A: Yes, I think all Cait's
fish Morrowind animations are based on japanese 3ds fish models. Some
models are typical japanese fish. Ingredient (trophy) names taken from
Morrowind4fish beta by Brash are still japanese only. I retained these
ingredient names for better compatibility with Morrowind4fish. Now I am
considering about correct the names and / or add/substitute with
standard and NecessitiesOfMorrowind fish related ingredients.

Q. -The octopus shouldn't lamely hit you with one tentacle...
A: Sorry, this is the only attack animation

Q:I've been looking around for ducks and geese but still haven't seen
any, which areas and times of the day are they most likely to spawn in?
I've only seen a couple in my whole time playing with your mod. =)
A:
They should spawn mostly when you are in low , fresh river and lake
water ( about -60 / -90 Z coord) . I.E. Odai river, especially near
Balmora, Suran, lake Amaya, Solstheim river and so on

Q: -Just a thought, but maybe could you add (ie not let be spawned but
put on the world) one or two of your creations? It would be so cool to
stand upon Vivec's foreign quarter, stare at the see and then see whale
blowing in the distance.
A: There are mods (to which I am and want remain as compatible as I can)
that hand-place same creature models in
fixed positions: Morrowind4Fish, Cait's Sea & Grotto, Wilderness 2, and
maybe others I don't recall. I don't like hand placing creatures in
possible future mods landzone areas

Q:I chose the box with spear but I was still able to kill fish with an
axe maybe I was supposed to check something else.
A: No, the spear is a facility, it's not really needed, you can still
use every weapon you like, but you will have to "open" the corpse as standard.
If you use a spear, you can "string" the killed crab/fish and auto-loot it,
so there is a sort of usability "bonus".
This feature was inspired from the ix-ir idea and argonian players comments
in alpha thread.

Q:When I was in shallow water off shore about ankle deep when a sea
horse spawned. I believe a summoned ancestor ghost fell to the bottom of
the water causing it to Spawn. Any summoned creature or companion can
sit on the bottom and creatures will still spawn. It's great how you got
everything to interact. The sea horse opened like a container but all
the fish had herbalism effects.
A:yes, auto loot works when using spear with small fish & crabs, and fishing rods.

Q:I was in a cave with a pool just below me when I heard an air bubble
sound. I looked down and seen a clown fish. If only I had a fishing rod.
I do not believe it was supposed to spawn.
A:This is 1 of the most noticeable beta additions: interior water recognition;
now creatures can spawn even in interior water (grottos, pools...).
The condition is: player must be emitting splash/swimming sounds

Q:I have not seen any crabs yet. I do not know where they spawn but I
believe shallow water would might be best since they are small and hard
to find which might be the reason I could not find any.
A: Crabs should be common enough near the shores.
There should also be new bigger crabs on deep sea floor.

A: OK, time for some explanation about fishing rods:

The spear-fishing facility and the fishing rods work only with my new-
added water creatures; in fact, all code is attached to the creature.

So, if you are using other mods containing the same Cait's creatures
(Wilderness 2, Morrowind4Fish, Cait's Sea and so on), these features
will not work with creatures added by other mods.

You can easily recognize a creature added from my mod switching to 3d
person view, opening the game console and clicking on the creature: the
console window title will show the creature name; my creatures have the
ab01 prefix.

Anyway, if you are trying to use a fishing rod with the right creature
( a fish introduced by my mod), you should see explanation message
telling you if you are acting the right way.

So, if you don't have any crab meat bait, a message should tell you that
you need it to go fishing and so on. If no messages appear, it's
probably the wrong fish (not a small enough fish of my mod, or not a
fish of my mod at all).

Q: If you fish with a companion following you they will attack the fish
so you can not catch it and it disapears.
A: Yes, same problem near guards. Actually, fishing was meant to be
a good, lonely relaxing sport (like it should be?), or a less risky way
for starting players to catch fish.
If player is able to do it without much risk, killing fish the
standard way may be faster and more effective. Regarding the
guards/companion problems, I tried 'luring' fish with AIfollow instead
of Combat, but it's not as effective.

Q: I have a last question for you: when will the message box "Pearl Fish
gathered from caught fish" will display ? (what difference with "Pearl
Fish gathered"?)

A: "x Fish gathered from caught fish" = gathered using fishing rod. "x
Fish gathered" = standard gathered with autoloot on "You got it with the
spear!" = gathered with the spear (randomly acquired ingredient not
specified)

Q:But I wonder how many time should the player use the rod (clicking the
mouse) to catch a fish? Of course I can catch fishes easily, but I click
many times with the mouse for that... if the message "a good throw"
appears, does it mean that I have to wait the fish approaches, or do I
have to click a few times (to make the fish come closer and to catch
it)?
A: You should study the fish; if it's coming closer, wait without more
clicking until you see the "it's near!" message (you could have multiple
message if there are many fishes), then start clicking again near the
fish

Q: When the fishes are close, it's easy to hit them with the rod...
should the player try to avoid that? is it the normal way for fishing or
shall I use the rod (one single click) and wait till the fish is
gathered?
A:It's better if you click near the fish, but there is no real problem
if you hit it, apart some possible unavoidable "critical hit" message.
There is not a "click count" for catching a fish. It depends on your
position relative to the fish, on the presence of other fishes, on the
fish AI, on randomization, on your (fishing academy compatible, + 0.2
for every caught fish) fishskill, on your PC luck... The more you fish
( = the higher your fishskill), the less clicks should be needed, but
relative positioning and other factors count :-) Q: If the fish were
added to leveled list and the normal ones were taken out then it should
place some in water.(not sure if I said that right might be an edit) A:
Yes, there should be some advantages using leveled lists, but the
primary goals of this mod (compatibility with actual and future mods,
very low fps hit when out of water...) could be compromised

Q:Since u have such a variety of fish why not auto place some in game
Not that many but a few to give the player something to look at while
hes not underwater 2 or 3 in the balmora river u know just a few random
amounts...
A: Well, this is a little against the starting goals of this
mod

Q: ...maybe even add em into the unerwater levelled lists too that
would be sweet
A: This could be more feasible. When I will have actual
beta problems solved, I will think about it (can't promise though), but
I think it would better be a separate add-on for those wishing to add
this feature and not willing to use other existing, but maybe too heavy
mods implementing same leveled list models.

Q: What are these sextants you are talking about. Never mind I think I
read about them in a book. Any idea where to find them?
A: From Water Life book: "Among the most valued items brought to
Morrowind by the
empire, sextants allow seasoned sailors to calculate, when equipped in
the righ, their geographical coordinates, elapsed trip times and medium
speed" Sextants are sold from Arrille and the majority of pawnbrokers.
Not so fun as fishing rods, still in theme with water life, and
interesting (I liked Starcon5 sextant model very much, so I tried to
make it something equipable/usable). To use a sextant, equip it.

Q: It's really awesome, but unfortunately it makes my game so unstable
that it's practically unplayable. But, my computer isn't that great, so
I'll have only it on sometime when I'm just playing through the
mainquest without any extra mods in. Good work.
A: I turned up the threshold on mine as well so it requires 25 fps to
spawn creatures. This
ensures that there will be plenty of animals way out at sea in my game,
and much less if any at all in the lakes and streams.

Q: I got a sextant, It's a pretty neat little device. Gives all these
precise readings of time location ect. It would go well with a sailing
mod. And it's nice to look at too.
A: The goal with the sextant was to
make it of use, while keeping visible the great Starcon5 model.
Yesterday I played for the 1st time with MadMax Ultimate Galleon...
wonderful I really wanna be able to use my sextant when walking around
over the galleon, sailing and measuring full speed

Q: I used the sextant and the uses never went down at all. Thou it was
10000 or so. It was still a great machine.
A: To be equipable/visible,
actually the sextant use the probe animation... it's a 0.1 quality
probe, so pretty useless as a probe but very durable.

Q: The fishing rod every once in a while hits the fish when I cast even
thou they are fairly distant from shore.
A: Yes, the fishing rod has a
great range, like real ones, to lure distant fish; and I managed to
intercept hits and replace hit sounds, but critical hits/bloodstains are
still visible.

Q:Does that galleon in the screenies come with the mod? It looks
different from Emberwolf's version (nicer, actuallly, with the cannons).
A: It's the awesome Ultimate Galleon by MadMax, to which my mod
(particularly the sextants and fishing rods) has been designed to be as
compatible as possible (and, thanks to Max, vice versa). Be sure to try
it, it's a masterpiece.

Q: BTW, what exactly does the sextant do?
A: "Sextants allow you to
calculate, in the right weather condition, your geographical
coordinates, your elapsed trip times and, with some difficult, but well
known by sailors, calculations, your average speed." In practice, I like
to use a sextant when sailing high above the sea from the ultimate
galleon crow nest, or before/after a silt strider trip to measure
distance/speed of the journey. It could be used also for treasure map
quests ( MJY has used it for this purpose in a mod ).

Q: I already have 3 files with v1.3, so can I installing the patch
without it causing issues in those files? I love these mods, they're
amazing. I love your birds one, too.
A: Thanks Matt, glad you like them!
There should be no problems replacing the old version, apart maybe some
"can't find blah..." message at the first restart, but, as always,
backup your important savegames and the old version of the mod before
replacing it. As a general rule, if you want continue playing a on-going
game, the new plugin version should be set to the same date/time of the
previous version you are replacing (this is not required with this mod,
but it's good practice valid for all plugin updates), so it will be
loaded by Morrowind in the same order. Also, updated version of Water
Life should be loaded before Necessities of Morrowind if you want enable
the new NOM water containers autofill feature when near fresh
water/raining. To manage this and other "routine" mod maintenance tasks
I really suggest the coupled use of TESTools (to change dates/sort mods)
and Mash (to change date/solve most plugin load order and doubling
problems). Also, cleaning your savegame is always a good idea.

Q: How many types of fish can you catch? So far I have only caught Bark
Fish, Pearl Fish and Abbot Fish... Edit: if these three are the only
ones, please add more, this mod rules
A:Thanks for the appreciations.
The decision to give only ingredients as loot came after a good amount
of feedback in alpha/beta threads about balancing/cooperation with other
mods. This was the first step to mutual interaction with Necessities of
Morrowind, one of the most used "realism" plugins, and to my knowledge
the only one authorizing/giving modders a free to use ingredients
resource pack. This also avoids problems with the originally used too
big/too fps taxing creature trophies ( try dropping a whale
trophy on Balmora's main square, and you'll see what I mean).

Q: I kind of like this mod, and am currently using the previous version.
However, I don't really like the sea stars, they add to much "fruity" to
the game. Is there a quick way to get rid of them or keep them from
spawning?
A: There are not many things that can be safely spawned on
seashore: crabs, barnacles, sea stars. Removing sea stars completely
would reduce variety too much. What I could do is lover sea stars
probability, but this probably would mean someone else will think there
are too many barnacles or too many crabs. Best thing is consider sea
stars like flowers... you can appreciate them even without looting
smile.gif And don't fear them cluttering your game. When you are more
than about 5000 units away and looking elsewhere, things autodelete.

Q: Thanks for the update abot. I have a question though. Does a new
water life ring suppose to appear in your PC's inventory every time you
load your game? This is happening to me every time I load my saved game.
A: If you have no ring in the inventory, yes, this is supposed to
happen. The ring is the way to access the configuration menu any time
you like, so on reload a fresh new ring is added if you have no ring.

Q: At what level or how do sharks apear? do they use creature spwan
points, or do they appear once the player reaches a certain level or
what, haven't had chance to gains levels and investigate.
A: Creatures are dynamically spawned by script around the player,
no levelled lists
are used (except the replaced-if-you-wish new-style slaughterfish). This
gives life to all ocean wilderness, has the advantage of working with
past, present and future mods, and has a near to 0 compatibility problem
with other mods changing levelled lists. Try a trip to a sea area near
your preferred land explansion plugin, or to the brand-new isle you are
working on... you will find water life there also. Generation does not
depend on player level. It depends on geographic zone (latitude,
fresh/salt water) and on water depth (usually deeper water = more
dangerous creatures risk). Also, creature size counts. A big creature is
tougher than a small, same type one. A low-level player should be able
to swim inside low water with not many problems if he can cope with
slaughterfish... but deep diving is another story. You can count on
helpful creatures though.

Q: another idea: Could you add an ingrediant for every fish? e.g. if you
cath a salmon, the 'ingredient' is salmon. It would also rock if it is
possible to add a random weight to ingredients, so it is possible to
show of your 12 lbs. catfish or something (I have no clue how heavy that
is, because in my country we use other weight indicators, whatever it is
called). Keep up the above excellent work!
A: First releases of this
plugin used trophies like other existing mods using the same wonderful
Cait's models (Morrowind4fish beta by Brash and Wilderness 2 by PumaMan
for instance). The problem is that trophies used the creature mesh, so -
If you not resize them by script (Morrowind4Fish beta), there are
problems with big ones (sharks, whales...) - if you resize them by
script, there are problems with FPS/ingredients stacking and still
problems with originally big, too weird if resized ones (whales). The
possible solution (adopted, for a certain extent, by last Wilderness 2.1
also) could be : - not use biggest ones (whales, maybe killerwhales and
big sharks) - use 3dstudio resized/new smaller meshes.

If you are able/willing to resize most Cait's aquatic meshes using a 3d
program to make new ingredients, I will happily ask her permission to do
it and add the new ingredients/trophies to my plugin.

If you are able to obtain permission from PumaMan (I gave up a long time
ago asking for bird models, sorry) to use some aquatic ingredients from
Wilderness 2.1, I will gladly consider adding them.

I'd like more adding some of the ingredients from Morrowind Crafting, so
to have more interaction with it, but the readme states the author don't
like other mods using these as resources.

Besides, a few posts before you can see another user asking to limit
seastars... as you can see, sometimes one request seems to be against
another... so, being impossible to satisfy everyone, I have to choose,
and when in doubt, I usually choose to satisfy (feasible) majority
requests... or myself

**********************************************************************

Anyway, don't fear deep diving and enjoy!
- abot abitoftaste@gmail.com

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dedicated to Dennis aka Grumpy, father of all companion mods, great
modder and great person - may you forever walk on warm sands.