OpenMW + Julan + Patch for Purists?

[acatlady]

Per title - is there a way to get these all working together? I used OpenMW 0.46.0 with Julan 2.0.2 for a while, and it was playable but the scripting was dodgy, and then I found the NatalieN's patches here which fixed most or all of the scripting issues. (Mainly Julan not being good at following my Nerevarine, and NPCs going missing from locations they should be in.)

But when I added Patch for Purists to the mix, Natalie's patch stopped working - Julan is back to getting lost, and neither Shani nor Sinnammu were to be found in their locations (i.e. the healer's tent and Ald Daedroth Inner Shrine, respectively).

Is there a way to get this all working? Load order stuff maybe? Should I just try Morrowind Code Patch instead? I hope I can stick with OpenMW, my poor laptop is probably too weak to run Morrowind under Wine.

[Edit: moved to the correct subforum, sorry about that! I originally posted this in the Oblivion mods section somehow.]

[Wolfborn]

Patch for Purists should definitely be loaded before Julan and NatalieN's patches; thing is, since it was just updated, it's probably loading last, which is likely the source of your issues. (Load order is determined by date; files dated later will load later in the order.) You'll need to use a utility to re-date either Patch for Purists or the Julan & NatalieN .esp files to change the load order. Note that doing so will more than likely mess up any existing save files; also note that adding Patch for Purists may have caused issues with existing save files as well. Your best bet might be to start a new game from scratch; either that, or use a utility like Wrye Mash to manage your load order and save game files (note: Wrye Mash is not the easiest program in the world to understand, but it is a fairly powerful multi-function management tool for Morrowind mods).

Also, in case you're not aware, there is an official Julan Ashlander Companion thread on the Bethesda forums, where you can get help with issues like these directly from Kateri herself; posting there may be a better bet than posting here since these forums are pretty quiet these days. Just be sure to mention that you're running the 2.0.2 version of Julan, since v3.0 is now out.

Edit: Forget what I said about PfP loading last. It's an .esm file, which always loads before any .esp files (at least with the original game engine. YMMV with OpenMW; I'm not really familiar with it).

[acatlady]

Oh wow, thanks! I didn't realize load order worked like that, I figured OpenMW would just load them in the order listed in openmw.cfg.

Re load order managers, are there any with Linux versions?

Thanks re the official thread. And unfortunately that's a negative re starting a new game; my Morrowind characters are turning out to be major time and emotional investments.

Edit: it says here that mods can be dragged and dropped to change load order in OMW! The more you know...

https://openmw.readthedocs.io/en/stable ... stall.html

[Wolfborn]

I'm not really familiar with OpenMW since I don't use it myself. I was unaware that it had its own built-in "mod manager" function. Sounds like that should be all you need.

Also, upon further reflection, what I said about Patch for Purists loading later because of its date was incorrect anyway: Patch for Purists is an .esm file, and .esm files are always loaded before any .esp files (such as Julan or NatalieN). At least, that's how it works with the original game; I don't know how OpenMW handles it. The bottom line is that Patch for Purists should be loaded before Julan and NatalieN; if that doesn't solve your issues, your best bet is the official thread linked earlier, or possibly the OpenMW people, since I'm not familiar enough with the setup you're running to be of much technical help beyond that.

And I totally understand your attachment to your characters, especially with a mod like Julan. Hopefully you can get everything working and be able to play them to completion.

[acatlady]

So an update - I think Julan's pathfinding was broken because I was using the Boots of Blinding Speed. Started a new game last night with the Run Like The Wind mod (makes running speed much faster for both PC and NPCs), and he was following me just fine.

That said I'm also using the 3.0 beta version that shipped with Morrowind Rebirth, so... <insert shrug emoji>

(Loving the huge extra content of Rebirth BTW, but not so hot on the balance changes. Most make the early game much harder without reducing later exploitability, which is... not what the game needs and also not really the stated goal, since you have to optimize characters even more for the early game now.)