User talk:Darklocq/Mod testing notes

Morrowind Rebirth is Compatible with OpenMW

Your mod testing list notes that Morrowind Rebirth is incompatible with OpenMW, but the author says that it is compatible. I asked for clarification about why it needed MCP and they explained that it was for (real) bump maps. Since OpenMW supports them, it is compatible. Their main page on ModDB even has a banner at the bottom of the info section that clearly says it's compatible with OpenMW. In my own brief testing, it appears to work just fine. So that should be changed. -Thunderforge (talk) 19:11, 2 August 2017 (CEST)

Noted. I changed its entry in the list. However, the MPC thing is actually for "fake bump-mapping". OpenMW uses real bump maps (normal and spectral) when this is enabled in the config file. The MPC trick is repurposing a layer to give a bumpmap-like appearance, in a way for which MCP compensates, but which produces brightly-glowing messes in OpenMW because it's a grotesque hack. Hopefully the results of whatever MR is doing with MCP's fake bumpmaps aren't too frequent or awful in OpenMW. There's a tutorial on how to fix it, but it can be a real hassle. I'm hoping OpenMW can eventually auto-recognize the MPC ones and "do something" practical with them, even if's just suppressing their day-glow appearance whether the intended bump-map shine is retained or not. — Darklocq ^☎ ¢ 12:49, 3 August 2017 (CEST)

Julan hints

Some direct hints for all you thud-and-blunder, wander-in-wonder, or do-30-quests-at-once players who don't absorb all the vague hints that puzzles-all-day-long players look for one quest at a time and may devote realtime hours to:

• He does not have inventory sharing until you take him to a major city like Balmora or Vivec.
• If you lose Julan before you have get his telepathy/teleportation ring, ask bartenders in Ald'ruhn.
• Mashti 1: After training him and clearing his Ghostfence phobia: spoiler: Get a gift for Julan's mother in the Varo tradehouse when he indicates it's time to visit her. Go to her camp on the shore west of Ahemmusa to meet her. Follow Julan's instructions (lighting a fire etc.) When you hear a disturbance between them, this is a cue to intervene. This opens some (eventually mandatory) quest lines about his background and the future of his people. You can pretty much do what you want with or without him until Cavern of the Incarnate, though remember that, like Jasmin, the most detailed commentary and other actions in the Julan mod are related to the Main Quest.
• When you get his telepathy ring, don't lose or discard it, even if he misuses it. If you do, you can get another from his mother.
• Shani: Any time up to around Cavern of the Incarnate, spoiler: get Julan drunk in the tradehouse in Vos (that one specifically) until he talks about Shani. Go to Ahemmusa and meet her. Put Julan in wait mode and talk to her again. Leave. Come back, find that she's out hunting; talk to hunting party leader in one of the yurts. Go away and do other stuff until Julan mentions her again. Return to Ahemmusa, find that she's missing. Go to the north entrance of Valley of the Wind, to the northernmost cave in the foyada, with the door blocked from the inside. Look for secret place in there. Take Shani back to Mamea in Ahemmusa.
• If you want to romance Julan or Shani. Unlike most dialogue options in this mod, the ones that eventually appear for this will change the future course of the characters' interactions with you (and they should be obvious when they come up potential spoiler: either flirt with Julan, or express a lot of interest in Shani. Both are Julan (not Shani) dialogues.
• Mashti 2: {{spoiler|Go without Julan and talk to her about her past until she gets all weepy. Ask about her at Urshilaku camp. Back to Ahemmusa: talk to anyone there about Mashti's past some more, then (after they tell you not to) talk to the old ashkhan's widow, Ahmabi, about Mashti (multiple dialog options) until she shuts you out. Talk to Nibani Maesa and warrior Rakeem about Mashti until you get the big story of the old ashkhan's demise.
• Now go do Cavern of the Incarnate (at dawn or dusk). Talk to Julan while inside, and he will teleport away (he needs to do this). Where did he go? spoiler: Try his telepathy ring, try to talk to his mother, then Shani, then his mother again, and finally go looking for him. The directions are useless; he's way over in the mod-added Ranyabi Egg Mine, very high in the mountains SSW of Zergonipal; use lengthy levitation and look for it in the daytime. The hint you get from the ghost inside is useless; what you have to do is use Detect Enchantment all over this place, and probably Light + Night Eye to find what you're looking for (ever tried to find the Thief Ring in Addamasartus?).
• Mashti 3: After you've got Julan back, spoiler: go to Mashti, and don't kill her. She'll tell you – in very different terms – where the bad stuff with the old ashkhan went down: Sanit, which for once is very close. Find a secret door there. Requires some Hunger-luring after you're in there, to activate a second strange doorway; put Julan in his don't-fight mode when you get to it.
• Ahemmusa Nerevarine: The mod makes significant changes to this quest: spoiler: At Ahemmusa, talk to Yenammu to learn that the Ahemmusa tribe have to relocate. Talk to wisewoman Sinnammu Mirpal; to be named the Ahemmusa Nerevarine, you have to clear out Ald Daedroth for the Ahemmusa to move into, and then lead Maesa there safely. You can start this part immediately after completing Cavern of the Incarnate, but probably need to deal with the end of the Mashti quests first.

Don't feel bad; some people have spent weeks trying to figure this stuff out, or just given up and killed Julan so they can continue on the Main Quest.
— Darklocq ^☎ ¢ 01:02, 28 February 2018 (CET)