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The Elder Scrolls III MORROWIND: Where Are All Birds Going?
by abot
Tribunal/Bloodmoon engine required
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1. Installation
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To install the plugin, unzip the files into the Morrowind/Data Files
Directory.
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2. PLAYING THE PLUGIN
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From the Morrowind launcher, select Data Files and check the box next
to the .esp file you choose to load
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3. Save Games
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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.
Suggested upgrade procedure:
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 abotWherAreAllBirdsGoing.esp and of your
save game
3. Go to a small interior cell that don't behave like exterior
(no sun/stars/wind etc.)
4. Save the game and exit.
5. replace the old version of abotWherAreAllBirdsGoing.esp with the
new, updated version
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)
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4. Features
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Where are all birds going? An attempt to bind flawed Morrowind AI to
bring life to most beautiful birds.
This plugin adds to Morrowind peaceful flying animals based on the
wonderful models & textures by Lady Eternity & Proudfoot, Cait Sith,
Thaedyn Vyr & Kacper/Kagz, Daduke.
The scripting method used can dynamically add the creatures around the
player in almost every existing and future landmass, and it's fully
compatible with other plugins.
Don't forget to check the other great original plugins placing the
creatures in the traditional way:
- Dragon's Breech by Lady Eternity & Proudfoot
- A Flock Of Seagulls by TextureFreak
- Fireflies Invade Morrowind by Thaedyn Vyr & Perceptual Motion Forums
members
- Caits Birdies & Morrow Eden 2 by Kagz
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5. Credits
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First of all Lady Eternity & Proudfoot, Cait, Thaedyn Vyr, Kagz &
Kacper Kuryllo for models and textures.
Thanks to Corv/Srikandi for letting me use the feather ingredient so
this mod and Ultimate Ranger can go together well.
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
And, last but not least, all scripts written by my inspiring scripting
light, MADMAX.
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6. Requirements/Updates
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This plugin requires Tribunal/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 has been compiled and tested with version 1.6.18.20 of Morrowind.
The plugin is set to NOT be dependant on Tribunal.esm/Bloodmoon.esm loaded.
This way, a unique plugin is compatible with both expansions.
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
If you simply want change the plugin date to adjust its loading order,
I really suggest you use Mash or TESTool to do it instead of resaving
it from TESCS.
Version 1.18
- removed a redundant soundgen entry
- added a missing Death1 Text Key to seagull1.nif, seagull1.kf
(Cait's seagull animation was probably not meant to be killable)
without possible warnings and should also sound better
- replaced firefly with fixed version by junglebrad
Version 1.17
- fixed an empty soundgen entry
- decreased bats stats a little
Version 1.16
- added firefly and bee ingredient
- improved night spawning control variable:
set ab01dayonlybirds to 1 will disable nocturnal bats spawning,
set ab01dayonlybirds to 2 will disable all nocturnal creatures spawning
- improved barnacles icon
- improved bee texturing
Version 1.15
- added some missing icons/textures, optimized some textures
Version 1.14
- slighty decreased probability of aggressive behavior
- fixed potentially crashing meshes
Version 1.13
- added edited butterflies, original by Lady E, retextured by Daduke,
from LEDA project resources
- added butterfly wing ingredients
- tweaked creature placement & deletion
- retextured bee, LOL ;-)
Version 1.12
- decreased probability of aggressive bats.
- increased probability of fireflies
Version 1.11
- decreased probability of aggressive bees
- reduced damage of bee sting.
- decreased probability of aggressive bats.
Version 1.10
- decreased probability of aggressive bees
- increased probability of small birds a little
- small changes to bat attack spells
Version 1.9
- Fixed excessive bird sounds
Version 1.8
- added Cait's magnificent new birds: seagulls, goldfinches, sparrows,
robins, chickadees.
- added Thaedyn Vyr's fireflies
- added rescaled Kacper Kuryllo/Kagz's bees
- fixed problem with excessive bats spawning when traveling by silt
strider at night (thanks to Ekim16 for testing)
- added no-spawning rings. Place a ring in your cell to avoid creature
spawning in a cell/zone.
From the console:
placeatpc ab01bgantispawnring 1 100 0
From the editor: drop a ring inside the cell.
- As I realized I am not able to reliably detect a different from 1.0
scale directly set in the creature editing form, birds scales are
now always randomized a little.
- scripts should be more stable, generate smaller save game data and
lesser misplaced spawning.
- for all you Mash users, added remover file
abotWhereAreAllBirdsGoingCreatures.etxt.
Version 1.7
- tweaked scripts
- added random diseases to bats
- less high-flying birds during bad weather
- improved obstacle avoiding AI
- now ingredients are assigned using (new) leveled lists
- reduced size of birds a little
- for all you fletchers, added to birds loot feathers from Corv's
Ultimate Ranger mod
- updated & moved documentation file to Data Files\Docs folder (more
Mash friendly... by the way, GET Mash!)
Version 1.6
- now birds will spawn also in every present and future interior set
to behave like exterior (those that display sun/stars/rain etc., for
instance, Mournhold plazas).
You can disable this with the console command:
set ab01alnointerior to 1
- fixed issue with birds appearing at wrong times in previously
visited areas
- added small bird groups.
- changed birds stats to be more aligned with standard creature stats.
- birds size will be normally randomized. But if you prefer a fixed
size, simply put a Scale different from 1.0 in the editor and it will
not randomly change.
- added a little combat AI to some bigger bird ( cliff racers are no
more the only kings of the skies; too bad we have not free & legal
eagle animations...)
- tweaked sounds a little, and dumped bird sounds when underwater
version 1.5
- added nocturnal bats; I delayed adding of nocturnal birds so far
mainly because I hoped to find other good models, but having a
request from TES forums, I decided to add cute Dragon's Breech bats.
You can disable them with the console command:
set ab01dayonlybirds to 1
- birds strength and health are proportional to player's ones.
- minor code fixes & optimization / less debug text
This version should be final until I find other good additional,
free-for-modders bird animations (well, I always say this thing...).
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7. Known Glitches
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Cait's latest birds were meant to be carefully placed by hand so to
avoid colliding flight paths, not to be placed dynamically by script.
If you can't stand them disappearing while colliding with walls and
obstacles, then version 1.8 or later of this plugin is not for you,
sorry.
All birds sometimes seem to freeze when AI recalculate long travels...
be patient, they usually find a way.
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8. Known Conflicts
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None yet.
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9. Permission
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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.
Models and textures made by Lady Eternity & Proudfoot:
birds should be free for modding if you download full Dragon's Breech
Total conversion, butterflies are modding resource.
Cait-Sith's, Thaedyn Vyr's models and textures, Daduke's butterflies
textures are modding resources.
Kacper Kuryllo/Kagz's bees, Kakz gently allowed me to
use them but I am not sure they can be considered modding resources.
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10. Tech info / tweaks
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If you don't wanna ruin the "magic" behind the birds generation,
SKIP THIS SECTION, this info is intended for who already knows
how it all works;
here are the infos to tweak the plugin.
The global variable ab01MinFPS, set at a default value of 12, controls
the minimum tolerated Frames Per Second before adding a bird.
So, if you are for instance in a Balmora-crowded place, with your FPS
under 12, no more birds will be generated.
You can set this parameter to suit your needs simply opening the game
console and typing:
set ab01minfps to XX
where XX is a positive integer >= 9
I you wanna see messages regarding what's behind the scenes,
you can enter debugging mode typing:
set ab01debug to 1 ( set ab01debug to 0 do exit debugging mode )
You will gain also a DEBUGGING flight ring (please don't use it for
cheating)
The console commands:
set ab01dayonlybirds to 1
will disable nocturnal bats spawning (set to 0 to enable)
set ab01dayonlybirds to 2
will disable all nocturnal creatures spawning
set ab01alnointerior to 1
will disable spawning inside interiors behaving like exteriors
( Mournhold plazas like)
Place a no-spawning ring in your cell to avoid creature
spawning in a cell/zone.
From the console:
placeatpc ab01bgantispawnring 1 100 0
From the editor: drop a ring inside the cell
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11. Final words
I find Cait's animations so good and real that I can look at real
birds with same eyes no more.
So, I did all my best to place them dynamically around the player to
make them available in every present and future Morrowind plugin.
The same for Taedyn's fireflies and Kasper/Kagz bees.
I started this mod because I really love Lady Eternity's and Cait's
models (the birds are from Lady E. & Proudfoot wonderful Dragon's
Breech total conversion mod, still in beta but really worth the long
download), and to explore (and possibly BEND) Morrowind AI pros and
cons. It started to work on my pc after a few days, so I thought to
publish it in beta version... and I have to say I was a bit
discouraged by some comments. But I know AI commands are relatively
unexplored territory and that there is other people interested in it,
so I will try to improve it with the aid of constructive suggestions (
by the way, thanks to Kagrenac, Rod, Jason, Jose and all you people
at TES Forum for the precious feedback.
Thanks to Mordicus for the French translation of the mod and the
precious feedback.
Thanks to Calislahn for approving the fireflies usage.
I initially delayed some "easy" implementing solutions (like
could be positioning birds higher than the majority of obstacles, to
test the real hard problems: find a way to make the creature detect
obstacles, or at least detect when they get stuck, and (most
difficult) find decent AI instructions to find a better route, hoping
also in a positive response by the modders community.
Now that the whole thing is stable enough, I'd like to add
other birds. If someone know/has nocturnal bird models to offer it
could be a great addition. If someone know/want to improve scripting /
AI strategy or whatever, feel welcome! If someone has good birds
models & textures to add, let me know.
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abitoftaste@gmail.com