UESPWiki:Morrowind Overhaul Project

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The Morrowind Overhaul Project is a project aimed at fully documenting the third game in the Elder Scrolls series by bringing old articles up to standard and creating pages for overlooked or hard-to-get information.

Project Overview[edit]

The wiki's coverage of Morrowind ranges from inadequate to highly incomplete. These pages include NPCs and Places, which have received little to no attention in recent years, and the Quest Pages, which have been extensively documented but left incomplete. This game is widely available and is largely compatible with modern software meaning that documentation should be fairly easy. This project aims to provide a list of tasks which need to be completed to bring the Morrowind namespace and those of its expansions up to par with the rest of the wiki's content. If you want to help out, add your name to the Project Members list, and please make sure to observe the project guidelines below.

Project Guidelines[edit]

To achieve consistent quality in terms of information and layout, the MWOP guidelines should be followed as closely as possible. We realize that the complexity of three entire namespaces can require unique choices, (e.g. tables, different headers), and that is perfectly all right – just make sure to leave a message explaining your choice on the article's talk page. Also, when in doubt, please ask your questions on the project talk page.

Please choose your area of expertise:

IN-GAME WORK

Involves taking screenshots, writing walkthroughs, adding unique dialogue for quests and NPCs and checking quest walkthroughs already written.

CONSTRUCTION SET WORK

Involves writing the inventories of NPCs, checking that any loot or enemies described on a page are accurate, and cross-checking any information that originally came from the construction set, such as stats and faction information.

WIKI WORK

Involves checking the grammar, formatting and linkage of pages. This can be done, in most cases, without owning the game.

Task List[edit]

Morrowind, Bloodmoon, Tribunal[edit]

  • Places: In most articles about dungeons the available items and the locations and types of monsters and NPCs need to be properly documented.
  • Images: NPC images are mostly complete, but many of them need aspect ratio fixes. Many interiors (especially dungeons) and in-game ingredients are missing suitable image files as well.
  • Quests: Most of the quest articles are complete, though some information is still missing.
  • Homes: There is a dearth of articles dedicated to the homes of various NPCs. Each interior should have a dedicated page to describe the residence, who lives there, what items the home contains and any other relevant information.
  • NPCs: The below is a list of details that need to be added and/or verified to be correct for NPC articles.
    • Quests: A short summary of the quests a character is involved in should be described on the NPC's article. For the most part, this information should already be documented. However, it may still need to be added or expanded upon for some articles.
    • Services: A description of all the services an NPC offers should already be included on the majority of NPC articles and should only need to be double checked and, when needed, expanded upon for the purposes of this project.
    • Personal Inventories: Articles about NPCs lack a uniform and detailed description of items worn and/or carried by them, and items that are stored at an NPC's residence. Particularly valuable items should be given special attention in this effort.
    • Unique Dialogue: Most dialogue in Morrowind is general and shared across a large number of NPCs, so dialogue is not a large component of the Wiki. However, dialogue that is unique to a particular NPC should be duly included. For example, Vivec offers much unique dialogue that can be mentioned in his article.
    • Spells: The spells that an NPC knows how to cast should also be documented. For consistency purposes, a list of sentences to document spells for each race can be found here. Please note that CSList should NOT be used to add spells to an NPC article. This is because for many NPCs that do know spells, CSList will list them as not knowing any while checking in-game with the console or in the actual Construction Set will reveal the spells that they actually do know.

Tribunal[edit]

  • New Place Pages: Several stores and other venues in Mournhold lack full place pages. These include shops in the Great Bazaar (the Magic Shop, Armory, Bookstore, Pawnbroker, Clothier and Trader), the manors of Godsreach (Velas, Llethan, Sadri, Thendas, Vacant and Andoren) and other buildings in Godsreach (The Winged Guar, Craftsmen's Hall and Museum of Artifacts).

In-Game Work[edit]

This section of MWOP consists of taking the correct pictures of all NPCs, places and items with their own pages, documenting the locations of enemies and loot in a given dungeon, documenting the houses and properties of all NPCs with pages, and checking that the quest walkthroughs already present on the site are complete and accurate.

Images[edit]

Images are an important part of how the wiki looks and feels, and thus can help or hinder a person's visit to our little corner of the internet. To that end, we must ensure that all of the images portrayed on the site are accurate, correctly portray the subject, and abide by our image guidelines. All images should have the correct copyright for use on the wiki, which, for all screenshots in-game, should be the {{esimage}} copyright. If there is already an image of your subject on the wiki, and your image shows something different and distinct from the first, you should add xx to the end of the name of your image, with xx being the next number available for the image in question. These numbers should always be two characters (so 02 not just 2) and should generally begin at 02, since the first image (without a number) is assumed to be 01. The name thus would be MW-type-name 02.jpg for the second image.

NPCs[edit]

For all NPCs who have their own pages, the image must show the entire NPC from head to toe, and be relatively close to the subject. Also, the image should be bright enough that you can clearly see the subject in question, and the NPC should be located in a place that they would appear in-game. This means that you shouldn't just find an open area somewhere and spawn NPCs to take pictures of them, but instead you should actively seek out the NPCs and take a picture of them in their natural environment, as it were. Also, the image should generally be just the NPC, with no other NPCs in the background. The image must be a 1:1 ratio, preferably somewhere upwards of 700×700 pixels in size. If the NPC already has an image, but the image is the wrong aspect ratio, size or isn't fully of the NPC, you can take a new version and upload that over the old one. When uploading the image to the wiki, it should be named MW-npc-name.jpg, with the name formatted exactly the same as the NPC's page on the wiki. This means that if a '-' appears in the NPC's name, it should appear in the image name as well; likewise with spaces and apostrophes. The image should be in the Category:Morrowind-NPC Images category. Lastly, be certain you are not running any mods that could modify the appearance of the NPC; many do so.

Places[edit]

Place images come in two categories: interior shots and exterior shots. All place pages should have both exterior and interior screenshots. In general, the majority of places in the game already have exterior shots, but some may not and others may need improvement. The exterior pictures of dungeons should show as much of the location as possible, while still making that location identifiable to the person looking at the image. For many dungeons, such as tombs, caves and mines, this is simply a picture of the entrance. For more extensive dungeons, such as strongholds, Dwemer and Daedric ruins, and Velothi towers, this usually means an aerial shot of the dungeon which shows the full extent of the location. These images generally do not feature NPCs or monsters in any prominent fashion, such as Skeletons outside of a tomb, or Daedra at a Daedric ruin. Exterior images should be named MW-place-name.jpg, with the name being formatted exactly the same as the place's page on the wiki. It should also be in the Category:Morrowind-Place Images category.

Many places, while they have exterior shots, do not have images of the interior of that location. The interiors of dungeons are somewhat challenging because many of them look very similar to each other. The goal of an interior screenshot is to show an identifiable location within that place. This usually means the largest or 'main' chamber in that dungeon, or the first room of another location, such as a house or store. These images should clearly show the interior of that location and can include NPCs and monsters that appear in those locations. Keep in mind, more than one interior image can be added to an article, and should if the location is extensive and consists of many rooms and subsections. Interior images should be named MW-interior-name.jpg, with the name being the same as the specific location that it is in. This means that for large dungeons with multiple sub-zones, the image should be named for the precise name of the sub-zone, which generally includes the name of the main dungeon itself. An example of this would be the Dwemer ruin of Arkngthand, which has six separate sub-zones. The interior image for the Hall of Centrifuge sub-zone should thus be named MW-interior-Arkngthand, Hall of Centrifuge.jpg. Interior images should be in the Category:Morrowind-Interior Images category.

All place images should have the aspect ratio of 4:3 and preferably be somewhere upwards of 1000×750 pixels in size.

Items[edit]

All items which have their own page should have images of that item as it appears in-game added to its page. Many of the more unique items, such as Daedric artifacts, already have these images. One set of items which does not have these images is the set of alchemy ingredients. Every alchemy ingredient should have an image of the ingredient from the game. This usually means placing the ingredient in question in a bowl or on a blank piece of paper on an empty table and taking a picture of it. Depending on the ingredient, you may want to have more than one in the image. A good example of that would be Saltrice or Marshmerrow, since they are thin objects. Ingredient images should be named MW-ingredient-name.jpg, with the name being the same as the ingredient itself. Ingredient images should have the aspect ratio of 4:3 and preferably be somewhere upwards of 800×600 pixels in size. Other item images should be named MW-item-name.jpg with the name being the same as the item itself. Images of non-ingredient items should have the aspect ratio of 1:1 and should generally be somewhere upwards of 750×750 pixels in size. All non-ingredient item images should be added to the Category:Morrowind-Item Images category.

Quests[edit]

The majority of quests have images on their pages, but the images may not be the best for those pages. Often, the images are simply of the quest giver or the place image of the location for the quest. Quest images should be specific and relevant to the page they are on as far as is possible. Quest images should be named MW-quest-name.jpg with the name being the exact same as the quest itself. Keep in mind that more than one image is perfectly fine for a quest page, so if the quest is extensive or contains complicated steps, more than one image may be needed. All quest images should have the aspect ratio of 4:3 and should generally be somewhere upwards of 800×600 pixels in size. They should also be added to the Category:Morrowind-Quest Images category.

Places[edit]

All places within the game, be they large or small, should have an accurate, specific but useful description of the loot and enemies that will be faced within said dungeon. This means that while loot should be specifically mentioned, only items which a normal player would reasonably be interested in should be mentioned. There is no need to mention that this location has forks on a table, but if there is an enchanted sword hidden under the bed, that should be documented. In Morrowind and its expansions, an object that is located out in the open (i.e., not in a container or the inventory of an NPC) was specifically placed there and will always be that object. This means that if you find a Potion of Cure Disease sitting on a table in a house, every other player who comes to that house will also find a Potion of Cure Disease. This makes it very easy to document these items on the page, since you know that they will appear for everyone.

Containers and Inventories[edit]

Containers and inventories are different, however. In general, a container's contents are determined by a leveled list of items specific to that type of container. Each container in-game is technically a separate object with that leveled list attached, thus the crate object in-game is actually around a dozen objects in the game files, each with their own lists. This means that describing a location having twelve crates is generally not useful unless you also mention that those twelve crates all contain an assortment of food items, or clutter, or magical scrolls. The best way to accurately describe the contents of a container is to generalize the items as much as possible. Many containers, especially crates and barrels, can be described either as containing clutter or as containing food items. If a container has more esoteric ingredients within, such as Daedra Hearts, Ghoul Hearts, Ectoplasm or Scamp Skin, it is best described more generally as an "alchemy ingredient". Also, many chests contain many different items in one container. In these cases, it is best to simply write that the chest contains "an assortment of" and then list the basic types that appear in the container that you looked at. If you miss a chest or the listing of a type of object in a chest, it is not that big of a deal, someone will eventually catch it and fix your mistake. You should still try to be as thorough as possible when writing dungeon walkthroughs, however.

Inventories of NPCs who are located in dungeons are generally quite simple, and usually consist of clothing or armor (which is not leveled, and will be the same for every person who encounters that NPC), a weapon or weapons (also specific to that person and not leveled), and an assortment of other items such as drinks, ingredients, potions, and clutter (which may or may not be leveled, it varies based on the item and NPC). In general, if you find a skill book on an NPC, it is probably not leveled, and everyone is likely to encounter it. This is not always the case, however, so you may wish to add a "verification needed" tag to the sentence, which is done by adding the {{vn}} template.

Houses and Properties[edit]

Houses and properties are one thing that has thus far not been documented on the wiki for Morrowind and its expansions. These locations should have their own pages but many include sections on the NPC page of their owner. The exception to this is any large buildings, such as the manors of many of Hlaalu's councilors, or any houses that appear away from cities like farmhouses or plantations. If the information is on the page of the house's owner, it should be transferred and converted to a separate page. Regardless of what page it is on, the information about the contents of these houses and the layouts of said houses will stay the same. The description should give the reader a general overview of the location's layout, and what items they might find within. It is quite alright (and even encouraged) to describe much of the location in generalities, such as describing a shelf as containing books, or pottery, rather than listing every book or every specific vase that appears on that shelf. For books, at least, if there is a theme in the subjects of those books (like all Temple related books, or entirely biographies), then this should be indicated in the summary. The exception to this is skill books, which should always be specifically mentioned in the summary. Any items which may be reasonably useful to the player should also be mentioned, such as alchemical apparatuses, potions, and enchanted items. As well, the location of the NPC who owns that house should be documented, and that NPC's infobox should list the house by using the |house= parameter in the {{NPC Summary}} template.

Quest Walkthroughs[edit]

Most or all of the quests in the games have already been documented and had walkthroughs written for them. They are not, however, all accurate or complete. If you wish to check walkthroughs, you should complete that quest in the game as it is written in the walkthrough, and make note of any mistakes or omissions that you notice, and add or correct that information in the walkthrough. Also make sure that any rewards are also documented.

The objectives and journal entries for the quests have all been added by a bot, so double checking that there weren't any mistakes and the journal entries are all present on the page (and in the correct order) should also be done. This should be a fairly straight forward check for anyone who has the construction set.

Construction Set Work[edit]

This section of MWOP is only for people playing the game on PC, as you need the construction set, which is only available to PC players. In general, most of the information that can only be gathered from the construction set has already been added to the wiki, so this section mainly consists of checking that information added by the in-game work section, above, is accurate. Specifically, the contents of containers and inventories of NPCs need to be checked to confirm that any non-leveled, important items are specifically mentioned, and that all the contents of that container or inventory are accurately described. Likewise, stats of NPCs should also be confirmed—specifically, the magicka seems to be missing for a large number of non relevant NPCs. Also, double check the class of the NPC, and make sure that the class is actually being linked to. Classes such as Slave, Guard, Trader or Mage (among several others) link to other pages than that of the actual class and should instead be linked in the NPC Summary template as |class=[[Morrowind:Mage (class)|]] where Mage is replaced with whatever class the NPC is a member of. While this can be done without owning the game, some of the classes may be wrong, as a person who is mentioned as a Trader could actually be a member of the Trader Service class, which is a distinct class in the construction set.

Wiki Work[edit]

This section of MWOP is ideal for people who don't own Morrowind at all, though anyone who wants to can help out. In general, the quality and consistency of the Morrowind namespace, and that of its expansions, is severely lacking. Grammar, format, and linkage all need to be improved. While this is a very general thing, and hopefully will be mostly fixed by expanding the pages in the above sections, there are some things that will likely stay the same from the current pages, and will need to be checked over by someone. Specifically, the classes in both the template and the first sentence need to link to the actual class. Classes such as Slave, Guard, Trader or Mage (among several others) link to other pages than that of the actual class and should instead be linked in the NPC Summary template as |class=[[Morrowind:Mage (class)|]] where Mage is replaced with whatever class the NPC is a member of. This is extremely important for non relevant NPCs, as they do not have their own pages, and thus will likely be missed by nearly all of the sections detailed above. Likewise, the page that these NPCs are redirecting to should be as specific as possible. If the location they are in has its own page, then it should redirect there, not the general page for that region. This is especially important to check for Vivec, where there is a list of NPCs by Canton that these pages redirect to, but if the specific location within Vivec has its own page (such as the Elven Nations Corner Club), the pages should link there instead. Also, all tables of people should use the {{NPC Data}} template, rather than hard-coding the information into the page.

Project Members[edit]

Project Ribbon[edit]

Anyone taking an active part in the project may use the project ribbon:
{{Ribbon|MWOP|width=100px}}
This user performed with distinction in the Morrowind Overhaul Project


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