Wanting advice from other modders/utility makers.

[ninjakreborn]

So, where to start. First let me tell you some about myself, and introduce myself officially to the community.

I am a lifestyle gamer, comic reader, and programmer. I play games 40-50 hours per week and play pretty much any game in existence.  I play 360, ps3, old games, pc games, elder scrolls, wii and any other type of game they make.  I have a 20k+ gamer score on XBox and working on my PS3 stuff. I have 4 90's on WoW and play it often, and just overall I game A LOT.  I have a great deal of gaming experience. Also i've been doing web site development, web application development, desktop development, and Android development throughout the last 8 years.

So there you have it..some about me. I have been a lurker in the Morrowind modding community for several years. A few years ago I did some minor participation as businessman2000 or businessman332211, but now my permanent handle is ninjakreborn.

So there you go.  I want to start "contributing" to the Morrowind community by way of  mods, and utility development.

My original idea was to create a community site and a ton of other "websites".
I thought the entire community was death. Bethsoft isn't used much anymore, PES is dead, Nexus is....well Nexus...and Fliggerty's site use to take me to a broken archive that I found in Google. So I had no idea there was a thriving community out there. Anyway that pretty much removes the need for any Morrowind websites.

So my other speciality would be programming utilities, or modding.

SO below are my questions about advice and feedback.

1. Is anyone wanting a specific mod done (per request) that isn't done yet. Please think VERY small. I'v done nothing short of tinkering in the Construction Set and also I use
an Alienware MX17 scroll pad...so I have always had to fight with the controls. I want to start REALLY small to get use to the controls, and master the TES construction set
and THEN I can start taking bigger mod requests.

2. Any requests for simple (to start with) Utilities. I worked with C++ for a long time and learned it very well and had just started getting into Windows API. Then I went to
Java because I started doing Android development..and I am in the process of learning and programming in Java.  So I will be trying to build out a few utilities. I have (in mind)
a very large rebuild utility that takes the features of a lot of the well known utilities currently out there and puts them into one massive rewrite of a new utility. But that's
going to require some more experience in Java on my part.  

So there we go. Looking to take VERY small mod and/or utility requests for stuff that doesn't currently exist so I can get my feet wet.  

I'll check back later, and over this holdiay weekend i'll get started on whatever request sounds the most interesting.

I am very experienced with a great deal of languages also SOOOOO if someone has a current project that interests me I might get my feet wet by taking an abandoned mod and working with it.

So if someone knows of an abandoned mod that needs cleanup or finished that's pretty small..I don't mind trying that out too.

Anyway, Thanks!

[john.moonsugar]

An "all in one" utility might be kind of nice at this point, as a number of older utilities are no longer supported. But it could be a huge task, it depends...
If you want to do a utility that can look inside plugins and change them, you might consider C++, as you might be able to use some of the code written for OpenMW.
My own personal preference is for utilities that can be extended via scripting languages, so I've used Python and Perl. They are slower performing languages, of course, but fast enough for many things, and I find them easy to develop with.

MWEdit could use some bug squishing (like the dialog editing). It's also in C++.

You can get something of an idea of the current state of utilities at PES.

[ninjakreborn]

Well what i'll probably do is just start a fresh build in Java.  I'll start off with something simple like a mod manager.  Then if that works out/goes well i'll build my own "Sort Order" mod similar to MLox but built into my utility.  Then i'll just expand from there. Depending on how it goes, and if it can retain my interest long enough.  I'll start off with a simply utility that works like Wrye Mash installers. Load up the folders in a zip file, formatted in a specific way.  Then have it install them into the proper folder.  

I don't know. Might be interested. I'll keep you all updated once I get it presentable.

Any ideas on smaller mods in the meantime is appreciated.  Wouldn't mind getting my feet wet with some basic ideas.

[ninjakreborn]

I just started on something. Calling it Morrowind Swiss Army Knife.  Just finished up some of the menu options in Java.

It'll take me 2-3 weeks to learn enough extra Java to get the first part together...but once I get something substantial working i'll post a new thread about it under utilities to get feedback.
Meanwhile if anyone gets any basic mod requests they want to post here, might give me something to fiddle around with in the construction set.

[Elaura]

MWSE could use an update.  As far as I can see Enchanted Editor never made it out of beta.

[Leonardo]

Well what i'll probably do is just start a fresh build in Java.  I'll start off with something simple like a mod manager.  Then if that works out/goes well i'll build my own "Sort Order" mod similar to MLox but built into my utility.

I just started on something. Calling it Morrowind Swiss Army Knife.  Just finished up some of the menu options in Java.

I know Java is powerful, but TBH Java are not the most used programming language in the TES community instead it's Python and C++ or C#.  Especially knowledge in Python are more than welcome these days since all development of Wrye Mash has no or with little activity right now.  The Wrye Bash team doesn't have the same activity in development by its leading devs is MIA and all variants of a mod manager like Wrye Mash (Morrowind), Wrye Bash (Oblivion, Skyrim) in combination of other tools are definitely needed for any heavily modded game.

There is one thing that I'm worry about and that's the outdated (obsolete?) installation program for the Enchanted Editor suddenly stop working, so if anyone could update the setup program for EE will have appreciation from most modders I think.

[ninjakreborn]

You have a point about languages.  However, I did C++ for a long time.  It was very slow learning.  The Windows API was a pain. And I started getting pretty good at it,  and i'll continue to learn.  However, I really do seem to like the look/feel of Java better. I mean literally to create a window and some menu options in C++ using the Windows API it was very complicated. Took a lot of time to learn and to modify. Java...I set down for 20 minutes last night and had a working Java Window with a few top menu options and an exit function. All in less than an hour.  So i'm not sure what language I want to take.  I am PLANNING on totally mastering C++ and Java overtime and being able to do both. But currently I think I want to focus this new application on Java.  Once I build the entire thing, I might do a rebuild in C++.

Also for Enchanted Editor...I might take a crack at fixing the bugs.  However, would the original "Creator" give me permission for that, or is it open source?  Also where would I find the source code.  Point me in the right direction, and i'll take a stab at fixing the bugs in it over the vacation. At least it'll give me a chance to start contributing some of the modding community. I always deleted my Morrowind install when I took a break from it but I won't be this time.  I will also be re-installing Oblivion and then getting Skyrim when I get ready.  I plan on starting to contribute regularly.  Even when I take breaks, I always seem to come back to it, so might as well.

[ninjakreborn]

Yes, I can't really do anything with EE. I can't find the source code, or permission details anywhere.  I also don't know how to contact the original developer.

[Leonardo]

Also for Enchanted Editor...I might take a crack at fixing the bugs.  However, would the original "Creator" give me permission for that, or is it open source?  Also where would I find the source code.  Point me in the right direction, and i'll take a stab at fixing the bugs in it over the vacation. At least it'll give me a chance to start contributing some of the modding community.

There is no bugs in Enchanted Editor not that I'm aware of no, but the setup program is antique today since it was fairly common in Windows 3.1 to Windows 98 SE IIRC.

[ninjakreborn]

Oh I see what your saying. As far as I know though, I haven't done installers before but I could figure it out. However...wouldn't I need the entire source code to be able to roll it into an exe installer?

[Leonardo]

Probably not and the only thing I know is that you need to the main files once it's installed via the old installer, so perhaps there is a way to either update the old one into a new one or having some checking during the installation process.

Try this link - http://en.softonic.com/s/windows-installer-3.1.0-.0

[ninjakreborn]

Hmm..I might just do this. I haven't done installers before so might be fun.

I'll look into that this week.

On a side note I started a pretty good ways on this Super Utility.  The first utility i'm building into it is the "Morrowind INI Editor".  It's going to allow you to choose the INI file for Morrowind.  Then it'll show a table.  The left column will show the "variable name" in the INI file, the field beside that will show the current value, and the one beside that will allow you to enter new values.  I'm going to try to incorporate another column that gives some information about the field, including minimum/maximum values and recommended information pertaining to that specific value.

That's the first thing i'm building. As I want to start off small. Once that's done/tested i'll release the utility for testing. Then i'll start to add new small utilities after that and continue expanding it.

[Melchior Dahrk ...indomitable will might rid Morrowind of all its ills.]

New utilities are always welcome. And a completely all-inclusive one would certainly be handy.

Glad you're taking a stab at this ninjakreborn! Best of luck to you!

[ninjakreborn]

Well i'm wanting to learn some of the desktop programming languages, and due to lack of ideas i've just been piddling. I spent 8 years doing web development and just got interested in desktop and android development. So I needed a few ideas to get started with it. I'm pretty sure by the time I build what I envision i'll be a master at desktop development. At least it allows me to do something I enjoy while actually contributing.  There are SO many morrowind utilities...but maybe only a few have been updated in the past 4-5 years.  All of them could be improved on greatly.

[ninjakreborn]

A few questions about Enchanted Editor.

1. I can't find any license information on EE. Can someone point me to this, or know how I can get in contact with the developer to get permission to build an installer for this.

2. I tested out the original installer and everything seems to work fine for me. It's a little convoluted (run a setup programmer to extract installation files, to then install it). It can be simplified a lot...but still...the entire installer/setup program worked fine for me.  What kind of issues were you (and/or) other people having with it.

[Leonardo]

A few questions about Enchanted Editor.

1. I can't find any license information on EE. Can someone point me to this, or know how I can get in contact with the developer to get permission to build an installer for this.

2. I tested out the original installer and everything seems to work fine for me. It's a little convoluted (run a setup programmer to extract installation files, to then install it). It can be simplified a lot...but still...the entire installer/setup program worked fine for me.  What kind of issues were you (and/or) other people having with it.

1.  Try this link to extract the archive and go through all files in there perhaps you could find some information about license/permission, but AFAIK all archives/files that exist on MMH has a permission that's granted to our community unless the author specific stated otherwise.

2.  Yes I know it's working, but what I mean is that the setup GUI it self can be unsupported by Micorsoft any time similar to what they did with both WinHlp32 (WinHelp 32-bits), Outlook Express (was removed) in Windows7 and suddenly they were unsupported (WinHlp32.exe is required for help in MW-CS and you need a patch to read the help file).  Things like this is something I'm concerned about especially any community related software.

[ninjakreborn]

Hmm strange.  I'll spend some time looking into that this upcoming week.

Also, the utility i'm building is going well. I'm having to "totally" learn the language while building it, but it's coming along well. I guess i'm about 40% done with the Morrowind INI Editor that i'm building. After that, I'm going to be trying to add a "NIF Cutter".  I saw someone in the forums (spiritedtreasure) that was asking for an NIF to be cut. So i'm going to try to build a small program that you can load an image into the utility, and then specify (with a drag line) where to cut and have it cut into a separate image. Not sure yet, but i'll keep people posted.