Thanks for the document. I have some questions,
I assume that contents which are already configurable in the vanilla CS are implied and don't need to be added to the doc? (eg governing magic school, graphics and sounds are implied optional arguments for "Magic Effect")
What does abandoning oldscript mean for basic dialogue functionality in the construction set, since dialogue results are MWscript compiled directly after dialogue? Functions like "Choice" and "Goodbye" are very basic, if they are really meant to be deprecated and their use discouraged, what would dialogue results look like? The functionality provided by these basic elements can still benefit from simple improvements (example: the ability to have a choice in a greeting direct to an entry in a topic), but does that come at the cost of abandoning the intuitive function words? Is a basic form of oldscript+ out of the question for dialogue results, or is the dialogue scripting system to be abandoned in favour of some sort of dialogue tree CS UI, or separate oldscript and non-oldscript result boxes (exclusive or in sequence), or some other system entirely?
Topics: Is the ID feature for topics meant for fast localisation? If several content files use the same name for a new topic but with different "topic IDs", the dialogue topics list would display several identical topic names, even if they should logically overwrite each other without harmful conflict (example: one content file adds flavor dialogue available from general NPCs and uses topic "beer" with a generic entry, and another content file gives another topic "beer" to a particular NPC with a particular entry for a quest) so as a content developer right now I'd still feel compelled to use the actual topic text for topic IDs, and put the responsibility on content loading order to avoid conflict between content files that aren't necessarily aware of each other. All this isn't to say that topic IDs aren't useful, but for localisation, wouldn't a CS tool that scans topic links in all dialogue do a more comprehensive job?
Topics: I see no mention of greetings (the first entry spoken by a NPC), are they also topics, so that new ones could be added? How would the priority of new greetings work with the existing greeting0-9 topics? If greetings will stay common topics like in Morrowind, are there any plans for dialogue sorting improvements to the double-linked list when
several content files use the same topic?
Topics: When referencing a topic... from within a dialogue text (this includes journal entries),
a useful functionality to support would be explicitly hyperlinking (referencing) a topic/topicID while displaying different text (text that is not the topicID's text). Having to use exact topic text in sentences to get it hyperlinked leads to awkward phrasing and it's frustrating for writers. Real example: "chairs start flying" is the real topic name, dialogue line wants to use "chairs started flying" but link to "chairs start flying" when clicked on. A player might be confused if they look for a link they used that had text too different from the actual topic, but that's on the content dev.
Instances & Objects: are content files able to apply partial edits to the records and subrecords of an object ("class")? If I understand correctly "Record Variables" could add new subrecords, but how about the ability for a content file to apply or apend edits to existing subrecords without modifying the whole record or subrecord? Example: I create a new faction object "Gente Nueva" and want to add faction reactions to the faction object "Thieves Guild" so that "Thieves Guild" will hate members of "Gente Nueva": in vanilla this cannot be done without modifying the whole "Thieves Guild" faction object. The same issue applies if I want to change a single aspect of a NPC, like giving it a new face: in vanilla this can only be done by by editing the entire NPC and overwriting changes to other subrecords of the NPC from any other content files, even if they would be compatible changes.
Instances & Objects: where does the ability to distinguish instances created in the game come from (vanilla: 8 digits added)
Script Instructions UseSkill (or whatever ends up fulfilling this functionality): does "Progresses the skill id by a value of v" imply that progress counts towards level ups? (as noted later, "Note that regular script instructions that change skill level do not count towards level ups.") Assuming it does, similar functionality that allows you to change skills *without* counting towards level ups would still be useful to have, especially for temporary stat manipulation on companion NPCs if they otherwise get to level up themselves.
General de-hardcoding: what about original morrowind's hardcoded objects (gold, soul gems)?
Some of these topics probably deserve their own thread but I'm not familiar enough with the project to know whether they're worth discussing in-depth so early.