Julan Ashlander Companion

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NatalieN
Posts: 43
Joined: 30 Nov 2015, 21:32

Julan Ashlander Companion

Post by NatalieN »

Julan is now playable on OpenMW. I have created an .owmaddon to fix some of the scripting issues in Julan v 2.02, and will keep the most recent version attached to the bottom of this post. I have spoke with the author, and she has agreed to review the proposed changes, and implement them upstream if they pass muster.

There are several bugs in 0.38.0 that render Julan more or less unplayable. You'll have to either wait for 0.39.0, or use a daily build..

Sometimes, the FPS plummets every second or so when Julan is in the same Cell as the player!
This happens when aifollow is called excessively. See bug #3080. Update to a daily build, or wait for 0.39.0.


I went on a date with Shani, but I can't find the guy with the nice sword!

This is probably due to bug #1384. The relevant script uses the placeatpc command to place the High Ordinator in question, and sometimes that spawns him in the void beyond the map. You could change the script to always spawn the Ordinator in a safe location, but I'm not sure if that's the best workaround. For now, type the following into the console:

Code: Select all

PlaceatPC "KS_highordinator" 1 0 0
I want to move the Ahemmusa camp, but I can't find the Wise Woman!
Vanilla Morrowind moves the Wise Woman Sinnammu Mirpal from Ald Daedroth to her yurt in the camp, but the positioncell command they use clip her into the ceiling of the camp. Physics in OpenMW cause her to slide through ceiling of her Yurt, so she's standing on the "roof". You can either TCL through the ceiling to talk to her, or type the below code into the console:

Code: Select all

"Sinnammu Mirpal"-> setpos z -300

Julan doesn't follow me when I cast Recall or Intervention from an interior cell!

This is due to a difference in the way that OpenMW and Vanilla handle the "Position" command. See bug 3109. You'll need to use the PositionCell command to place Julan somewhere where you can find him. Copy/paste one of the below lines into the console to move him to Balmora or Ald-Ruhn. You can substitue KS_Julan for KS_Shani if you need to move Shani.

Code: Select all

KS_Julan->PositionCell 492 457 -240 16200 "Balmora, South Wall Cornerclub"
KS_Julan->PositionCell 742 -1626 -227 13620 "Ald-ruhn, Ald Skar Inn"
Julan doesn't remove his armor!
Due to the difference in the way that OpenMW checks to make sure NPCs have the right equipment on and the way Vanilla Morrowind does those checks, the scripts that remove Julan's armor don't work. And I don't think they will. If you get a chance to look at the scripts, they look pretty hack-ish. Maybe post 1.0, some new scripting functions will let Julan take his armor off in OpenMW.

Julan doesn't play casting animations when casting Divine/Almsivi Intervention!
See bug #3083.

KS_Julan_MRM_Patch.ESP doesn't work!
There are scripting errors in KS_Julan_MRM_Patch.ESP. I've uploaded an .owmaddon to fix them. You don't need to use the .esp, only the .omwaddon. Make sure your load order is:

MRM.ESM
Julan Ashlander 2.02.ESP
JulanOMWpatch.omwaddon
JulanMRMomwpatch.omwaddon

Original post below:
Spoiler: Show
Attachments
JulanMRMomwpatch.omwaddon.tar.gz
Replaces KS_Julan_MRM_Patch.ESP
(1.45 KiB) Downloaded 1110 times
JulanOMWpatch.omwaddon.tar.gz
Patch for Julan Ashlander Companion v 2.02
(20.08 KiB) Downloaded 1611 times
Last edited by NatalieN on 14 Feb 2016, 18:04, edited 20 times in total.
User avatar
sjek
Posts: 442
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 10:51

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by sjek »

.............. browser crash .. there's basically many workarounds and some seems like vanilla compiler is not working and passing proper script instead..... anyway for starters just some script checking. specifics

at least bugs / feature miss on not allowing cells on aitravel which needs moved references and "unexpected special token <newline>" while the script seems ok and altering text doesn't help for it

for the listing:
Spoiler: Show
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NatalieN
Posts: 43
Joined: 30 Nov 2015, 21:32

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by NatalieN »

I've created an .omwaddon to patch the badly written scripts, and pass the changes on to the author. See attached. [EDIT] I broke some things in the omwaddon, so I've removed it for now. [/EDIT] That should help us iron out what exactly is a problem with OpenMW.

KS_amoveweakescort1
Probably fixed. I've never actually played far enough to know exactly what the intended behavior there was, but I took a guess, and I think I got it.

KS_amoveweakfollow2
Fixed

KS_delay_DS
Re-wrote the offending portion. Should work as intended now. I'm not going to mess with OutsideBanner since it's not part of the mod in question, and it should work despite the error.

KS_highordscript
Fixed.

KS_Jul_escortRM2, RM3 and RM4
Possibly fixed? Maybe I broke them, I'm not sure. More testing needs to be done, but the changes I made are included in the attached .omwaddon

KS_jul_getup
Hmm... this is interesting. The "Set "KS_Julan".NoGreet to 1" doesn't throw errors in other scripts (eg: KS_Jul_escortRM). Any idea why it's broken in this one? It looks to me like " "Ghostgate, Tower of Dawn Lower Level" " should be commented out. Amended code below, please let me know what you think.
disable, enable cycle is for getting changing to aitravel to work
Doesn't seem to work in the script, but I do it from the console, then it works.
Spoiler: Show
KS_jul_getup2
Fixed

KS_jul_kickout
Fixed and tested. If you comment out the "Balmora, Caisu Cosades' House", it works as intended. I checked the UESP on AITravel, and I'm not sure having cell names was ever a feature in vanilla Morrowind. I didn't mess around with modding vanilla though, so I can't tell you for sure. Also, pretty sure moved references are in.

KS_jul_leave2
Same AITravel issue. Fixed. Hopefully. I'll find out when I play through more of the mod.

KS_jul_recalring
Not sure what, if anything, can be done about this. Also not sure what you mean when you say "script may be more accessible so check that the cell is same if needed would be good"

KS_jul_redmount1
[EDIT] My changes to this script broke things. I've undone them.[/edit]

KS_julan_interv
Not sure what, if anything, can be done about this.

KS_julanscript
Fixed.
Last edited by NatalieN on 03 Dec 2015, 08:00, edited 1 time in total.
TheMechanist
Posts: 59
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 22:08

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by TheMechanist »

I'm just here to say thanks for your work :) I noticed the bugs a few versions ago and always wondered if I could play with Julan again...
User avatar
NatalieN
Posts: 43
Joined: 30 Nov 2015, 21:32

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by NatalieN »

No problem. I'm still working the issues. I think I've tracked down a few bugs in OpenMW that break Julan, so between that and the script fixes, it should be good to go. No promises on a timeline, or when I'll get a new .omwaddon up
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lysol
Posts: 1513
Joined: 26 Mar 2013, 01:48
Location: Sweden

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by lysol »

NatalieN wrote:I've created an .omwaddon to patch the badly written scripts, and pass the changes on to the author.
Cheers!

Not interested in the mod, I was just happy to read this. Good initiative.
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NatalieN
Posts: 43
Joined: 30 Nov 2015, 21:32

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by NatalieN »

Oh my goodness, this is shaping up to be quite an undertaking.

I finally got around to emailing the author, I'm glad to see she's still active on the Bethesda forums (they even liked here. Cool.) So hopefully the scripting issues will be applied upstream.

Not much luck nailing down what's going on in the engine code yet though. I chased some leads, then realized I still hadn't checked thoroughly for all the scripting errors. Because I forgot that you can run scripts during dialog. So I need to check the dialog before I finally separate scripting errors from engine errors. And Julan adds a ton of dialog. A ton

I do have one promising lead on the cause of bug #3026. So we'll see if that pans out.
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psi29a
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Location: Belgium
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Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by psi29a »

NatalieN, thank you for taking the time to do all of this! :D
DocClox
Posts: 101
Joined: 10 May 2015, 13:26

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by DocClox »

I'm watching this with interest. About the only thing that keeps me playing the vanilla implementation rather than openMW is the lack of a functioning Vampire Embrace mod.

If you get the bugs out of Julan, we can probably work out how to fix VE. I just wish I had a bit more free time so I could pitch in.
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NatalieN
Posts: 43
Joined: 30 Nov 2015, 21:32

Re: Problems with Julan Ashlander/Other companion mods

Post by NatalieN »

I've got some great news, and some not so great news.

Great news is that I was able to get in touch with the author, and she'll take a look at the proposed scripting fixes and apply them upstream if they pass muster. She's also open to hearing more feedback with respect to bugs and such, so we won't have to maintain patches.

The not so great news is that I'm rapidly coming up on the limits of my abilities to find and fix bugs. I have the time, interest, and energy for this undertaking, but I'm lacking in skills and experience. I will need help from the broader community, especially when it comes to figuring out what exactly is causing an issue. Fixing broken scripting is easy. Figuring out if the scripting is even broken can be much more difficult.

Soon, I'll be asking for more specific technical help, as I work through the dialog and scripts to isolate broken components. Once I find something that should be working, but isn't, I'll post it here.

[Edit to avoid double post]
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Is this bad scripting, or bad engine behavior?

Consider the below script

Code: Select all

Begin KS_Jul_Kickout

short state

if ( MenuMode == 1 )
	return
endif

if ( state == 0 )
	Set "KS_Julan".noGreet to 1
	SetHello 0
	AITravel 118 -295 73 180; "Balmora, Caius Cosades' House"
	set state to 1
endif

if ( state == 1 )
	if ( GetAIPackageDone == 1 )
		PlaySound3D "Door Heavy Open"
		set state to 2
	endif
endif

if ( state == 2 )
	AiWander 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0
	PositionCell 492 457 -240 16200 "Balmora, South Wall Cornerclub"
	Set "KS_Julan".noGreet to 0
	SetHello 30
	PlaySound "Door Heavy Close"
	set state to 3
endif

If ( state == 3 )
	set state to 0
	StopScript KS_Jul_Kickout
endif

End
Under if ( state == 2 ), the PositionCell command moves Julan to a different cell, which then prevents noGreet and SetHello changes from being applied. Once you track down Julan in the South Wall Cornerclub, he doesn't give any greet messages, which totally breaks the mod.

Moving the PositionCell command down the list, as in the below code, (almost) restores expected functionality.

Code: Select all

if ( state == 2 )
	AiWander 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0
	Set "KS_Julan".noGreet to 0
	SetHello 30
	PositionCell 492 457 -240 16200 "Balmora, South Wall Cornerclub"
	PlaySound "Door Heavy Close"
	set state to 3
endif
I've uploaded a video on youtube of both scripts running. 46 seconds run time. (Potato quality, not sure why.)

So is this a case a bad scripting, a bug in an existing feature, or yet-to-be implemented feature #1176? I'm seeing this like this all over the Julan mod, and knowing what exactly is the root cause of this bug could be a huge help in figuring out what parts of Julan are good to go, and what parts aren't.

(A brief aside, the line PlaySound "Door Heavy Close" works, but PlaySound3D "Door Heavy Open" doesn't. Any ideas?)
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