I have analysed which cells overlap between Elsweyr Anequina and TWMP, and I found that they are exactly the same cells that also overlap between Anequina and the original Valenwood Improved - and all those cells are in Valenwood! Basically it is excessive padding attached to Anequina - this sort of thing can happen automatically in the CS. This is the reason why Valenwood Improved Original or Tamriel.esp for the TWMP version has to be loaded before Anequina, which seems counter-intuitive.

What happens here is this. These new lands have to create new cells outside of Cyrodiil because they do not exist in Oblivion.esm - they go beyond the existing padding. These new cells are created automatically by the CS when you scroll around the land, and the CS assigns them some formIDs. Naturally these IDs turn out different for the various mods, so if you try to load them together, you have multiple cell definitions for the same coordinates. When the game encounters this, it keeps the first definition that it finds and destroys all other cells defined for the same coordinates. So in this case the first definition overrides all subsequent ones, which is the opposite of what happens with everything else.

Destruction of a cell during load means that every non-persistent object in that cell is deleted, so the landscape, the path grid, trees, buildings, flora, rocks - all that is deleted, but persistent objects like NPCs, doors and markers are preserved. Disembodied doors, anyone? Yep, that's where they come from. It means then that it is only safe to allow unimportant empty cells to be deleted, otherwise you are erasing content and creating disembodied markers, people and doors.

Of course it is better not to force the game to clean up your mess. It is better to delete unwanted padding cells from the mod yourself, so that there are no conflicting cell definitions.

And this is exactly what I'm doing for my own game: trimming off padding from Anequina. The border between Anequina and Valenwood is quite clear, both in the original and in the TWMP version, and it is the same in both of them. Unfortunately Iliana is no longer replying to messages, so I won't be able to release this trimmed down version since it is explicitly prohibited to release alternatives to the main download, and cell deletion is not something that can be done with a patch. Besides, it is not strictly necessary... It's just something that I am uncomfortable with.

An update on the overlapping cells between Anequina and Valenwood.

Valenwood Improved original and its TWMP version cover exactly the same cells (in terms of coordinates), while Anequina extends all the way to the West coast of Valenwood and also a great deal to the South. That territory has landscape with texture, rocks and trees but is unreachable from Anequina - there is a solid collision barrier along the border, you can't go beyond it. I suppose the landscape was generated so that you could still see the land beyond that point with LOD.

Valenwood Improved however has a different structure. It simply ends at its Eastern border, and if you don't have Anequina, you would see a giant drop to level zero and fall into that gigantic land tear. Perhaps it was always meant to be used with Anequina - you do get some land tears along the border, but they are small.

However, about half way between Skingrad and the sea in the South, Anequina Western border and Valenwood Eastern border start diverging - Anequina turns East and Valenwood turns West. This produces a very sizeable hole, a hole that is covered by the padding of Anequina. This hole is filled in by TWMP which follows the border of Anequina exactly.

The conclusion is then that if you want to trim the padding off Anequina, you have to make two different versions: one for Valenwood Improved Original and the other for TWMP (with or without Valenwood Improved in it). You still need a patch to repair the land tears along the border - use whatever patch you were using before. This trimming is purely for stability.

I have now trimmed Anequina for TWMP to use with my own game. It shaved off about 15 seconds off loading time of the first save of the game session. It also made every loading of Tamriel noticeably quicker and smoother with a much shorter "settling in" period after loading. I am satisfied.

I've been having visions while cleaning up my TWMP Skyrim Alive. I think this will be coming to The Reach. To complement this and this. Lore police begone!

~~~~~~~~~~
If you don't recognise the first picture, here is some info.

TWMP Skyrim Alive is getting slowly debugged. I am still not feeling like playing it all that much, so most reports - but not all! - come from other people. Fortunately the really bad stuff seems to be over, and now we get the peanuts. I've been doing a lot of cleaning and other xEdit work aimed at making the mod more stable and purging more of the weirdly corrupt records that somehow got into it in the first place. I think there must be some floating point number overflow going on because some rocks are found on the other side of the planet... quite literally. Assuming that Tamriel is in fact a continent on a spherical planet, then the Z coordinates of some of those rocks put them firmly to the other side of the globe. Alice going down the rabbit hole all over again.

I have also been adding notice board quests. Some of these are quite simple, others are a bit more involved, and yet others have interesting consequences like enabling ship transport between a port town in Skyrim and a port town in Cyrodiil. It may not be obvious from the start which quest has "hidden extras". I have a list of quests I want to put in, and I'll be working through it over the next month or so, I expect. The quests come from the background stories that I imagined for the NPCs as I've been creating them - they come from the core of it rather than being a lump added on top, which should ensure that the world feels natural and any weird requests that you might get stem entirely from the weird nature of the NPCs rather than their creator.

Oh, and we'll have a rats quest. Cannot possibly do without! But it's Skyrim, and rats are more... hairy.

Doesn’t xEdit’s undelete action do something strange with the z coordinate? You might be reinstating conflicts, like rocks blocking entrances.

I hear you, Ghastley! This would be most annoying. The newer versions of xEdit use a different technique to undelete records: they give them the Player as the parent and set their "enabled" status to be opposite to the parent. This is an awful choice on so many levels! But anyhow, the rocks on the other side of the planet were caused by a bug in the CS (I hope it's a bug!), I think. They most likely got introduced when I was relocating a castle from the Gnoll Mountain (near Bruma) by selecting a range of objects with the mouse (click and drag to select several objects). I am not exactly sure how or why, but often when you do this, you also get items from the cells on the other side of the world deep underground or high in the skies. With the Gnoll Castle relocation I got both, plus several duplicated cells as well. It took a major effort to clear (and to figure out in the first place).

Skyrim is getting bigger. I looked through my notes for each Hold and found an awful lot of quests waiting to be implemented... And I thought I didn't do quests! Ok, quests it is...

Quests are coming to Skyrim in batches. With the big release done and mostly debugged, I can take it easy and work in bite-sized chunks again. These are all point releases (2.7, 2.8, 2.9, etc.), I feel this is still material that belongs to release 2, not release 3.

The first chunk of this type was release 2.8 that I did yesterday. It took a couple of weeks to complete, but not working on it every day, at a nice leisurely pace. It contains a bunch of quests for Dawnstar, long distance travel by ship and the Docks district of Kogotel. Err... in Morrowind. I was going to connect the gates at the Rift and Dunmereth Passes to the corresponding gates in Tamriel Rebuilt for Morroblivion, but those areas are too unfinished to be playable. Missing meshes and textures everywhere, no interiors or NPCs, no path grids, plenty of CTDs... Not surprising really because these areas are not yet a part of the official Tamriel Rebuilt but only a part of Preview - they are still very much work in progress, in particular in their Morroblivion conversion.

So I decided on a different approach. Build a small settlement just over the border in Morrowind, give it a port, put a ship there and arrange transport directly to Vvardenfell. And thus Kogotel Docks came to exist - just the docks district of what is supposed to be a big city. Whether the rest of Kogotel will appear as well, is anyone's guess...

Kogotel Docks

With a sizeable cargo ship going to Vvardenfell

Distinctive architecture - this is Morrowind

Definitely not Skyrim!

The same ship arriving in Gnaar Mok (the best place for smuggling trade, they tell me)

Does this mean Kogotel is the first stop on your ship journey from somewhere in Skyrim, or do you reach there overland?

In TESV, you sail from Windhelm to Raven Rock, and I assumed that was the remnant of a larger trade with all of Morrowind, that existed before the eruption. So I expected Windhelm to Vvardenfell by ship.

A map of the area would help, wouldn't it.

Raven Rock is not on Vvardenfell though - it's on Solstheim. And yes, we also have ship transport between Windhelm and Fort Frostmoth - the original destination on Solstheim, quite close to Raven Rock.

Kogotel is reached by road taking the Rift Pass from Riften. It crosses the Velothi Mountains. From Kogotel you can take a ship sailing into the Inner Sea, so basically anywhere. I let it sail to Gnaar Mok because it is pretty much on the other shore of the Inner Sea where you come out into it from Kogotel.

Good job! I was thinking of starting a new TES V game just the other day. Now I wonder, why did I do that?

You got tempted by the cool version of TESV - you know, the one without steam.

But even they don't have a ship service to Gnaar Mok.

Um, yes I did.

TWMP Skyrim Alive version 2.9 is out. This one has got another new town - Dunkreath. It's in Morrowind, just on the other side of the Dunmereth Pass. It's got ship transport to Ald Velothi in the North of Vvardenfell (if you've got Morroblivion installed, that is). Other than that, it's got Imperial Census and Excise Office, a couple of shops and a few strange people...

This update also has a bunch of collection quests and two joinable guilds - the Welkynd Masons Guild (become a Free Mason!) and the Dwemer Artifact Collectors Guild (become Chief Explorer). The guilds are not open immediately, you've got to earn the right to join. We don't want to make it too easy! This is my replacement of a typical radial quest system which sends you into the many dungeons that I added in release 2. Still nothing epic (try the main quest for epic! ).


Getting off the boat in Dunkreath

You climb the stairs and it starts snowing...

What's new with you?

This side of the mountains is NOT Skyrim

Who's your tailor?

Entering Skyrim - first impressions

Dunkreath - what an eclectic town!

They seem to have repurposed Dwemer ruins... waste not, want not I suppose.

Also, I just realised: TWMP Skyrim Alive is exactly one year and one day old! I uploaded version one a year ago... How time flies when you're having fun!

I have finally decided to release Lena's Companions in its own right, and not just as a part of TWMP Skyrim Alive. I actually have a dozen companions already... But the release starts with three. I shall be adding new ones when I am happy with the level of testing that they'll have received.

I developed these companions for my own game, they feature in Lena's story. Some, like Hauk Serck-Hanssen, for example, even have a "player" file - a mod that allows you to play as that character. Hauk is my lead character in Morroblivion, and I wanted him to look and feel like the companion that's been with me for over a year now... Yeah, these things have a tendency to snow-ball.

Wow, very impressive!

Yes indeed Acadian is right, this is very impressive. I don't know how you do it. It's been fun watching the development of your mods. Sorry to have missed the birthday party.

Thank you both!

How I do it? I tinker. Start small, and before you know it, you have a bunch of companions running around in a whole new land... Being a programmer helps, too. But admittedly modding has a very steep learning curve - it took me may be half a year to get to a stage where I at least remotely understood what I was doing... Still learning every day.

I spent some time figuring out xVASynth - the voice synthesizer. It was recently revamped and updated, both the engine itself and the voice models for Oblivion. Whoah - it's getting really good! Tamriel is no longer run over by the Daleks... But it is still quite a pain to get from the lines typed into the quest window to the voice files that actually play in-game and have associated lip sync files. I've been testing it on Geralt's Companion file (which is close to release). It's quite nice to hear him inquiring about goblins and ogres, even if he does have a bit of an accent. But then of course, he's an Outlander, so it's only natural.

Let us know what tips and tricks you come up with, as you’re not alone.

I’m trying to get Lynda Carter’s voice from Oblivion over to Skyrim. She did Azura (and Gormlaith) so I want to use her voice for some extra Azura lines. Nocturnal is easier, as her voice actress in Skyrim also did FemaleDarkElf. But the files for Oblivion don’t seem to be at the same level as the Skyrim ones, and need more manual intervention.

Yarob, the Wise (or Wild) Woman for my Orc Hearthfires mod, may get either regular Orc, or Lynda Carter as Sir Mazoga, depending on the results from Azura.

Azura, Nocturnal, and Greta (who can be standard FemaleYoungEager) are needed for the Diablo mod. All the others get by with standard dialogue, and my other mods so far have avoided using any spoken communication.

I'm afraid you're way ahead of me there! I don't do any manual intervention - that's beyond me. I don't have that kind of time. It already took me half a day to just get the lines from the quest window converted into playable MP3s, and that's only a dozen lines. Admittedly, it will go a lot faster next time and won't take half a day, but still, the sheer amount of spreadsheet work required is mind-boggling, and then the voice files generated don't play in game and need an extra conversion step by a different program first. And lip sync generation requires several goes, etc., etc. I am only using standard models, I cannot train any new voices or anything, like I said - you're way ahead of me already!

And I have not done any conversions from.wav yet, so you’re ahead of me on that part. I may try voicing Yarob as FemaleOrc first, just to get that workflow sorted out, and do a further round once the LC voice files are ready. By that time, I might understand how the batch thing works.

Oh, in that case it seems that we're approaching it from different ends. I started with the batch method straight away - it produces MP3 files which play fine when you click them from the file manager, but don't play in game. You've got to use an MP3 optimiser to make them playable, and the thing is, you have to enter the exact same parameters as you do in the synth, but now the resulting files are much larger and actually play... which is kinda nice... Mind-boggling, I'm telling you. I'll write it up once I actually understand what I'm doing.

I had another go at voice generation (in batch mode), and I now have a better idea of what's going on. I wrote it up here, if anyone is interested.

On the NEXUS I found a couple mods that will give a spell to deactivate dark welkynd traps. Has anyone ever had any experience with deactivating dark welkynd stones?

No. But those traps work because they've got a script attached to them. You cannot remove a script in-game, as far as I know, so I wonder how those spells were made. Do you have a link to one of those mods perhaps? Curious.

First let appologize for pusting here. I should have used the Look What I Found thread.
Here are the two mods I found. They both use scripts to temporarily deactivate dark welkynd stones; leave the cell and they become active again, sort of thing or so they say.
ossan_auriga Deactivate Dark Welkynd Stone Mod at Oblivion Nexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com)

Disable Dark Welkynd Stones at Oblivion Nexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com)

Both these mods work in a similar fashion: when the spell is cast, all dark welkynd stones in range are removed from the cell and replaced with inert dummies. It happens so quickly, you don't notice. When you leave the cell, they put them back.

The scripting is very different though, the method and the effect would be the same. Not a lot of comments - you'd have to try them out!

Skyrim, Hammerfell, Stirk and Chain Islands - the Northern Realms - are getting voice files! Uploading as we speak... 176MB 7zip archive - that'll take a couple of hours. We employ snails here for internet traffic.

It took me two days full time and all the curses in the languages that I speak and almost all the curses in the other languages. Learned a few things though, might be useful to others - will post the details in the xVAsynth thread. Very tedious, but worth it!

So now a certain Helga Open-Legs actually tells you that she wants to break out of jail. She is no longer mute!

Oh my gosh, I remember getting Helga out of jail.

I remember reading about it in your stories! Along with the wonder how on Nirn did that girl get such a name...

So now if you install TWMP one day, you can do it all over again and hear her talk!

An anecdote for you. This happened today.

You're playing a game that is rated to have some adult content. You come across a nymph in all its aquatic glory (she is aqua-coloured with a suggestion of nipples). You fall for her charms, even though all she wants to do is kill you and eat your brain. You make a video of this (the fight, not the eating of the brain). You post it somewhere on the internet. You get slammed with a "nudity" punishment. You return to the creator of the game and request that nymphs should be wearing shorts and bras.

The question here is whether you would have fallen for the nymphs' charms in the first place if they were wearing clothes?

Clamshells anyone?

So, the solution is then to play ESO instead because the nymphs there are more modest. (Although they will probably still eat your brain.)

Claire says no to clam shells claining they're not supportive enough.

to answer the question, NO. (If I say yes several pairs of angry eyes will burn holes in my back.)
I've been told that the lack of clothing is a distraction technique used to make the mind more susceptible to natural charm spells. Not really necessary but effective none the less.

Claire wins!

I have too many projects going. Could it be true? It seems so.

I have therefore been on a path of finishing up some of them. Since I released Lena's Companions master files as a separate mod, I started releasing companion files as well. They've been hanging around here for a long time, some of them for a very long time, they've all been in my game in some form or other, but having to clean them up and get them ready to go makes them "finished". It just puts a milestone in the project development path and allows me to move on. Also it gives me a fixed version that I can return to in case my future improvements "improve" them beyond usable...

I still have four companions to finish up, and then I feel I'll be able to park them for a while and get on with something else, such as playing.

"There is no such thing as a black pearl!" Am-Ra frowned at her companion. "I travel all over Skyrim, and all you find inside clam shells, is a bit of meat and sometimes a regular pearl. Black pearls are a fairy tale!"

"Not true," a Khajiit in red coat shook his head. "Khajiit knows. Khajiit has seen a black pearl himself."

The conversation was held in hushed voices, and yet everyone at the Bee and Barb turned around and stared at the Khajiit.

"You're lying," Am-Ra retorted flatly. "You're just repeating the same nonsense as that captain - he even named his ship 'The Black Pearl'. Completely besotted, he is!"

"Captain Octavius Rex is a respectable gentleman who is welcome here any time!" Keerava proclaimed loudly from the bar, noticing that the captain just entered her establishment. The scales on Am-Ra's face changed colour, but she didn't say anything, and the conversation in the room went back to mudcrabs and goblins.

"Did you say you've seen a black pearl yourself?" A Bosmer joined Am-Ra and the Khajiit at their table. He spoke very quietly, knowing that only beastfolk and the Bosmer had sufficiently sensitive hearing.

"Khajiit saw a black pearl," the cat purred. "They exist."

"So if that is true, then perhaps the amulet... Could that be true as well?"

Am-Ra rolled her eyes at more such nonsense, but the Khajiit continued purring: "Khajiit doesn't know for sure for he has never seen the amulet, but Khajiit believes it is true..."

The Bosmer rubbed his chin, then slipped a heavy coin pouch into Khajiit's coat pocket. "If you have any more information, I am all ears..."

The Khajiit smiled a toothy smile, got up and motioned the Bosmer to follow. They crossed the road and disappeared behind the Chapel of Mara - a secluded spot favoured for secret conversations. Am-Ra shook her head at this and smirked, since everyone in Riften knew that if you stood on top of the hill behind the Chapel of Mara, you didn't even need beastfolk hearing to overhear anything that was said below... The sound carried. She knew also what the Khajiit was going to say to the Bosmer: that the black pearls could be occasionally found in the very same clam shells that normally produced ordinary pearls; and that no one knew where the forge was located that could fuse black pearls together into an amulet; and that even if someone stumbled upon that forge by accident, he would not survive it because such a forge would be undoubtedly guarded by a Dragon Priest at least. So what was the point?

The Khajiit returned some time later, inconspicuously dropping a coin pouch into Am-Ra's pocket. He counted a stack of septims, signalling Talen-Jei to bring his usual. "One Velvet LaChance," Talen-Jei put the drink in front of him, swiping the septims into his own pocket.

"Another one fell for it," Am-Ra grinned.

"It's true though, about the black pearls," the Khajiit looked a bit offended. "Khajiit didn't lie."

"No, but Khajiit didn't tell the Bosmer the most important part, did he?" The colour of Am-Ra's scales changed again, becoming iridescent - she was laughing with silent laughter.

"Well, no, we don't want anyone to actually find that forge, do we?" The cat's whiskers were trembling with laughter too. "Who would pay for Khajiit's drinks then?"



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am working on the next batch of quests for Skyrim. It's all true - the pearls, the amulet, the ship, the captain... the Dragon Priest as well. The trick is to link it all together to get the ultimate prize.