Review Guide

When performing a cell review, you are allowed to make any necessary changes to bring it up to our standards. Small changes like clutter arrangement, bug fixes, etc. may be done at your discretion. Removal of excessive water features from tombs is one such example, as they can become trite when not used sparsely. 

For larger scale changes such as extensive room layout changes or general concerns with the overall cell, message your leads (Nic(k) or UCM) on Discord.  We will take a look and see if the changes are necessary. During this time, we will contact the original designer to let them know about the possible issue and propose changes. You may either do these changes yourself or allow the original designer to complete them. If the original designer is no longer part of Skywind, then it is left to your discretion. 

The aim of a review is to raise the quality of all cells within the game. Your review of a particular cell will be one of the last before release. Use your best judgement. Only pass a cell along if and when you believe it is release-ready. 

The review process is divided into three columns. 

1. Incoming LD Review - once a cell has gone through navmesh and optimisation, it will be placed in this column. Don't grab anything in this column, however.

2. Awaiting LD Review - after nav/opt changes have been merged in, the card will be moved to this column. At this point it is free to be claimed for review by clicking the "Begin LD Review" button. Please do NOT review a cell that you previously developed.

3. LD Review - anything in this column is being actively reviewed.

While not part of the main review pipeline, two other columns are important to keep in mind

1. Review Blocked - if something is preventing a review (missing assets or scripts, for example), click the "LD Review Blocked" button to automatically put the cell in this column. It's just a placeholder until whatever blocker exists has been fixed, at which point it will be returned to "Awaiting LD Review".

2. Review Returned - if changes need to be made to pass review that you, the reviewer, do not want to do or do not believe you can do, click "LD Review Failed" to automatically place it in this column. Please provide a comment on what needs to be fixed. The original creator or someone will claim it at some point in the future to fix.

If the cell passes muster, please move the card on by clicking the "LD Review Passed" button.

1. Look over the cell. Ask yourself general questions about its qualities: Does it match the exterior? Does the layout match general dialogue descriptions? Does it play well? Does it have the correct loot placement? Cross-reference the cell with the wiki (Morrowind:Morrowind - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)) and search the dialogue sheet for descriptions (message your lead on Discord if you don't have the sheet). For interior reviews, dialogue-checking is likely only necessary for quest locations and important settlements/locations such as forts.

2. Check that the cell is final. Designers will commonly push interiors to navmesh without doing a thorough check of the finalization list found HERE.

3. Most items in the cell will have been moved from the original layout. These items have 'don't havok settle' enabled on their references. Uncheck this box for every item that can havok settle. Only certain items should have ‘don't havok settle’ enabled (or the script that does it). For example, an item positioned intentionally, such as a knife sticking into a table. This can be done by manually clicking on an item and unchecking the 'don't have settle' box from its reference window or by batch action (hit the - key).

4. Update the navmesh where needed after changes are done. If the layout has been changed, make sure to update the roombounds or occlusion panes/boxes as well. If you need help, send back to nav/opt with a note on where the cell layout has changed.