Hello, and welcome to another OpenMW release commentary. The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.44 of our open-source reimplementation of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. This video covers changes in our game engine; if you want to know what’s new in our editor, OpenMW-CS, just lean back, enjoy the current video, and watch the supplementary editor video afterwards. Before we start, a few remarks: First of all, we have moved parts of our project to GitLab, replacing our old bug tracker in the process. Our plan is to make GitLab the main platform for OpenMW development, integrating source code, issue tracking, and, bit by bit, our wiki. That way, users will only need a forum and a GitLab account to access all project-related functionality. Please note that you can still use GitHub to contribute code to the OpenMW project. Secondly, we have released the first draft of our post-1.0 design document. Standing at 25,000 words or roughly 80 text pages, it provides concepts and details for almost every aspect of our engine, outlining OpenMW’s future development once we have reached version 1.0. Have a good read and feel free to discuss the document at our forums. Your feedback is very well appreciated. – We are an open-source project after all, so nothing is carved in stone. Last but not least, our project has gained momentum again both on the engine’s and on the editor’s side. In fact, we can look back on several highly productive months, which is why there are already 79 closed issues for version 0.45. We expect another release soon. Now, let’s have a look at what’s new in the current release. -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- OpenMW already provides many optional features, some of which deal with ambiguous gameplay elements, while others provide additional functionality. Version 0.44 introduces a new advanced settings tab in our launcher, allowing you to easily customise OpenMW without messing around with the infamous settings.cfg file. Please note that the advanced settings tab does not include every option available and that most of these settings will be moved to the in-game menu after some post-1.0 dehardcoding. Two features of the recent release make use of the new settings tab: First of all, players may choose the option to use rebalanced prices for soul gems. This optional feature was modelled after the corresponding Morrowind Code Patch option and drastically decreases the value of filled soul gems. When this feature is enabled, the value is only calculated from the contained soul, ignoring the soul gem type. Secondly, you may now specify the amount of quicksaves OpenMW creates for each character. A reasonable number of back-up saves should prevent possible – and literal – dead ends in the future. -------------------------------------------------- Even after 10 years of development, we still find small deviations from the original game. E.g., previous versions of our engine ignored the condition of equipped armour when calculating an actor’s armour rating, which automatically gave your character optimal protection in combat. Although that issue was especially welcome during Bloodmoon’s main quest, we’ve now adopted the vanilla behaviour. Another oversight resulted in traders selling their own potted plants. While this sounds like an immersive optional feature rather than a bug – and I’d really like to see a sophisticated version of that “oversight” in future OpenMW –, traders will keep hold of their beloved plants for the time being. When your character eats an ingredient, there is a chance that the first magic effect of this ingredient is triggered. Previous versions of OpenMW applied such an effect for only one second. The original game, however, randomises the magnitude and duration depending on your character’s intelligence and alchemy skill. The current release fixes that issue. – Finally, a new exploit for OpenMW players! -------------------------------------------------- In the past, enemies with ranged weapons suffered from very limited attack range – or, maybe, they aimed for 100 % accuracy. Anyway, as you can see, this imperial archer refuses to take a shot until my character stands right before him. Of course, this behaviour is incorrect and was fixed in the current release. Well, it seems as if aiming becomes an issue here – but that’s something for a future release. OpenMW still has some AI-related problems, and we are well aware of that. But who would have thought that non-humanoid creatures had developed a higher form of intelligence? Yes, they were able to open doors! After some scientific research, though, we have decided to intervene and turn back evolution. From now on, opening doors is the privilege of humanoid creatures again. -------------------------------------------------- In Morrowind, your character may grab items while their inventory is open. Previous versions of OpenMW contained an exploit which allowed your character to take cursed items through the inventory without triggering the curse. We have fixed that issue in the current release. Moreover, your character could take blocked items in menu mode, which gave access to elsewise unobtainable items. This issue was fixed as well. Your character is a spellcaster and you are tired of scrolling through all these useless spells, but too lazy to delete superfluous ones? No problem with OpenMW! Just use our brand-new spell search bar to filter the spell list. Neat, isn’t it? Finally, good news for all money grubbers out there: Version 0.44 introduces new abbreviations for item numbers. This avoids truncated numbers for values up to 999 billion, covering the whole range of possible stack sizes. -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- That’s all for now. Don’t forget to check out the corresponding release video for our editor, OpenMW-CS, and stay tuned for another release in the not too distant future. If you’re interested in the remaining 80 issues which are not covered in this video, consider reading through the official release notes for more in-depth information. Also, visit our homepage and forums on openmw.org for more updates. See you next time; thanks for watching!