General:Christiane Meister's Posts

Christiane Meister's Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Christiane Meister
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These are a few notable comments from Christiane Meister on The Elder Scrolls setting. Meister is known as Maverique or Mav on the forums. These comments were originally archived by The Imperial Library, the old Elder Scrolls Forums, Morrowind Summit, and Destination: Morrowind.

2000

On the goggles from an early screenshot (2000-06-19)

If you don't like the goggles, don't wear them

Just don't blame me if you get lost during an ash storm...

And actually there is no plastic in this game. Just natural chitin, leather, metal, and bug-spit....

Asking for player input and mentioning WormGod (2000-06-30)

CASTING CALL!

Want your favorite armor to be in the game? If it's cool enough... we may just use it.
Send me pics or drawings of what armor you think should be in the game and I'll wade through it and see what I can do.

As Worm God said, no pay but way cool duds and (maybe) even a mention. (At least you'd be able to brag to your friends....)

Oh, and Nekkid is not armor. :p

Thanks in advance,

On character models, and how the editor can affect them (2000-07-03)

Editor will do all ;)

Editor rocks!

On serving time in prison, and escaping it (2000-07-03)

I do believe there is some sort of prison moon thingie involved.... somewhere... as for the duking it out, well we'll see.

On the Dark Elf, and imagining a hypothetical line of Morrowind action figures (2000-07-03)

Action figure, that is...

As people were rushing to get Diablo II this weekend, I couldn't help noticing the action figures that adorned all of the marquis.
And then I couldn't get having a Dark Elf or Guar action figure out of my head...
Maybe a set of characters with interchangeable armor? Gear up your Guar? Ahem... sorry.
Well _I_ would um, play, with one.

What's your take? If you like the idea speak up! If you don't, well give me a damn good reason other than the obvious over-marketing shtuff. :)

(gleefully crouches in corner as she opens a can of night crawlers...)

On "big" enemies, also mentioning fellow developer Juan Sanchez (2000-07-05)

Alas, I'm not in charge of the large beastie types, but I do look over Juan's shoulder from time to time and I can tell you that the big, bad and the really ugly is well in hand. :)

On "racial" armor possibilities in Morrowind (2000-08-16)

Damn! I wish I could tell you all the neat things we have in store for you in this regard...
Race, class, and magic are all being taken into account. Hopefully, I'll be able to show you some stuff soon....

ToddH has already had too much fun with the models. I think he's made every version of Mel Gibson already (Patriot Mel, Braveheart Mel...an odd Russell Crowe or two).

Keep spouting your ideas... in case there's something I hadn't thought of

(You are on the right track :) [sic]

Follow up on "racial" armor possibilities (2000-08-17)

Well Ladies, I too find those breast cups annoying (and mighty uncomfortable!). You will be able to wear a man's armor (yay!) or specifically female-looking armor. However you like it. Oh, and Gentlemen may wear women's armor if they so prefer

Granted, the men's armor on a women, while it will work, will look a little big, and women's armor on a man will look... well funny

Hmm... we should have a side quest about this predicament... What do you think Ken?

On ideas for weapons for Morrowind (2000-08-18)

Hmmm... razor claws
or... Khajiit claws perhaps?

On the game that gave Bethesda reason to exert so much perceived "secrecy" behind the development of Morrowind (2000-08-23)

One word...
Daikatana

We wouldn't want to promise something and not deliver. That would suck - big time.
As things are implemented in the game, and they work.... we'll let you know :)

And well, there have to be some surprises right?

Responding to a fan asking if Khajiits and Argonians will be playable in Morrowind (2000-08-31)

So... you want to be Khjiit [sic] or an Argonian?
ok. ;)

On a screenshot/model render of an early model of the Indoril Armor/Ordinator (2000-09-01)

He's a bad-***ed guy from House Indoril and he doesn't have greaves 'cause he's so good he doesn't need them!!!
Rest assured you will...

On adding elements of various Asian cultures into Morrowind (2000-09-20)

Rest assured we will not have Japanese or other Asian names....or for that matter any other nationality that I know of. I doubt you will be able to even pronounce some of these names. I sure can't! (I think Ken jumbles up letters and says - "hey that looks difficult!" and lo there was an NPC name.)
And the Khajiit names - definitely not Asian.

On "bio booster" armor possibilities (2000-10-04)

The idea itself - well, I'll have to see if that would be possible. Stranger things have happend [sic], and some underground movements may succeed. :)

On Morrowind's clothing and armor (2000-10-16)

Nope. Haven't forgotten about the tried and true, Cluts! Thanks for bringing this topic to the forefront again. ;)

Ken Rolston and I have been working out the factions and house clothing and armor details. Hopefully, you'll know who's who and who not to mess with when you meet them. :)

On forests in Morrowind (2000-10-27)

You won't know what it will look like until you actually get into the game, because of course they are going to pick the best side to show you in a screenshot.

From personal experience, trees are one of the hardest things to do and make it look good with a reasonable poly count :P

And with the number of alphas they appear to be presenting, I hope they have some mean lean alpha rendering machine or you won't be able to see the forest for the trees, hehehehe. Sorry for the cliche, had to use it.

On "those flying things" (2000-12-06)

You might want to be careful when shooting those Netches full of arrows... They ARE gas powered if you take my meaning.

2001

On High Elves (2001-02-07)

From what I understand, the High Elves in Morrowind are far from effeminate. True, their culture revolves around looks, but in a rather harsh way. In fact, they will kill any offspring that do not fit the "ideal". Perhaps this is one of the reasons that their race is on the decline... low birth rates aside.

On the teeth modeled for the models of Morrowind's races (2001-02-28)

While the teeth are modeled - like a set of George Washington dentures , you will NOT be able to make the player cough them up. No gold in those teeth anyways...
And by the way - that's gross!

Following up on character modeling, this time about hands (2001-02-28)

No, the animations are stored in a completely separate file from the art files. The model would have to have the exact same bone structure to work, however...

Hope that answers your question.

On Bonemold (2001-03-30)

Bonemold armor comes from ground up bones and is mixed with resin and left to set in a...mold. Kinda like plaster of Paris but much tougher I believe they use bug shells as some of the molds, thus giving a bug-like appearance to that armor as well. Why not just use chitin then? Well, apparently this paste, once set is much stronger than chitin.
Chitin is very easily punctured by pointy things, unless it's a weevil - those suckers are tough to pin

Hope this helps a bit,

Responding to fan speculation about a then unknown playable race in Morrowind (2001-03-13)

MWUHAHAHAHAHA! You are all wrong! Keep trying, you'll figure it out
But I won't tell you when you get it right...

Subsequent replies about the mystery race (2001-03-14)

Alas, I can't say any more than... I really enjoyed making this race.

I just would like to know: where you telling the truth when you said it has been mentioned?

*Holds hand over heart*

yes

(I've always told the truth - from a certain point of view)

:D

Responding to the fan speculation on the then unknown playable race (2001-03-15)

Some of you guessed correctly.... but I'm not sayin [sic] who exactly..

Again responding to speculation on the mystery race, this time much more on the nose (2001-04-17)

We shall continue to cheerfully mislead you on this subject. :)
Your suggestion is duly noted, but one thing to keep in mind, is that what happened to the Dwemer is a complete mystery... What's mysterious about a lot of Dwemer roaming about the place? Especially, if you are one of them, as someone correctly pointed out.

And orc women wouldn't be ugly - to a fellow orc :D !
Beauty is in the eye of ...well you know. And ritualistic scarring is oh so chiche and all the rage right now among....many races. Just wait and see.

On the possibility of varying hand animations for the different magic schools (2001-04-20)

Well, that's definitely a very interesting idea...hmmmm. I'll have to give it some thought. There were no plans for that sort of differentiation other than the spell effects themselves. But now you've got the rusty ol' gears turning... Not promising anything, mind.
One little thing though, there won't be much standing around when you cast your spells. Unless you want to. That might add to your accuracy ;)
"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Important NPC that I was Supposed to Talk to, I was shootin' for that monster to your left....aw damn, he's dead...
oh wow look at that amulet he's got!"

Mulling her personal "Wishlist" items for Morrowind, and asking for fan response on female animations (2001-04-20)

Ah, you know me better than I thought! Headshot! But while we are on the subject of wishlist and animations... time to start thinking about special stuff. What sort of idle animations for women would you want to see and have never really seen in a game? Keep it clean boys There will be no grabbing of naughty bits under my watch!

Responding to fan suggestions on female idle animations (2001-04-24)

Thanks for all of your suggestions! It's more difficult than you think coming up with female specific idles. I'm sure I do those sorts of things all the time, but don't even think about it - except shaking ash out of my clothes...oh wait does sawdust count? ;)
I'll have to bug those ol' programmers to see if we can do those proximity ones. I think it would be cool if you came up to some serving wench and she started laughing at you because you have funny clothes!
Thanks again!

Once again, talking about the mystery race (2001-04-27)

I think you are getting lost in the forest, my dear.... Remember bread crumb trails can be eaten by birds, thus not a good method for finding your way home.
The only races I recall ever saying an absolute "no" to are the Dwemer and Daedra. Sure is interesting how a non-Dev (albeit well steeped in TES lore) can throw such a greasy wrench in your thought processes...
I suggest you retrace your steps and take non-Dev posts with a large grain of salt.

Responding to a comment on the recently released Khajiit wallpaper (2001-05-04)

You are correct sir. I haven't seen black fangs before, have you? His fangs are where they are supposed to be - inside his mouth. :D
You should be thankful he's not showing them to you. ;)

On the development of faces for the game (2001-05-09)

Wormgod pushes Mav, kicking and screaming up to the microphone. "Say something to the nice people, Mav."

Ehem, er well the editor DOES do some amazing things....
*SMACK*
Yes, well there are a great number of faces of each race for you to choose from. Now, keep in mind that the image you see in the inventory menu is an actual render of what you look like. It's not just a drawing like in Daggerfall. So, the face, the hair (or spikes or mane), the clothes - that's all 3D.
I've created young and old people, tatooed and scarred folks as well, so pick your look! You can be an old crone with white hair if you like. Or even more interesting, you can have an old crone's face with flaming red beautiful hair. It's all up to you. :)
As far as modification goes, if you don't see a face that grabs you, make your own. Take an existing texture and modify it. Make it match the original in placement though, or you could wind up with a nose off to the side of your face. ;)

Wormgod pulls Mav away from the microphone - "I think you've said MORE than enough. Honestly, give her a chance, and she never shuts up..."

On the material which makes up the dagger the held in the Khajiit wallpaper (2001-05-17)

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! It's made out of chitin, not a manufactured metal or bone, so you kinda have to work with the materials at hand.

Follow-up on the Khajiit wallpaper, about female Khajiit (2001-05-17)

Um, actually there is a screenshot with a female in the screenshots section. She's kinda in the background. But don't worry, we'll catch one and take a picture of her sooner or later. :)

On the Breton wallpaper (2001-05-21)

Yeah Pete knew that the site wouldn't be updated until they got back so he wanted to give you guys something anyway. :) Nice isn't he?

Well anyway, this guy is a Breton with a handy little axe that could take off a toe or two. ;)

How many faces will there be for each race? (2001-05-25)

Lots ;) Many humans just can't tell the subtle differences between most elves... hehehe :)

On "deformable" joints and moving limbs for character models (2001-07-14)

Hello there... think I may have answered this in some wild chat session somewhere, but here goes...

The body is mostly broken up into separate pieces to allow for our extremely complex clothing and armor system.

There are areas like the chest hands and feet that are "skinned" to allow for smooth bending. So the answer is - er both.

On "fixed" facial animations (2001-07-20)

Huh? Fixed open? One would catch a lot of flies don't you think? :)
Nope npc's walk, talk (with their mouths - not telepathically), and blink, and breathe, and swim, and jump, and scratch, and connive on how best to... well you get the picture. :D

Addressing Sean Ekanayake and wishing Pete Hines a happy birthday (2001-07-20)

He has... Sean is a soon to be well known fellow who is doing all of our print ad and box covers out in our west coast office. He also did the original awesome dremora wallpaper. I think it's fitting that he posed Pete as a Daedric Prince of Darkness...

He sometimes stands behind us (or calls us or ICQ's us) and says... "you will do screenshots and wallpapers for me NOW." Yes Master... we say.
We love you Pete :D
Happy Birthday!

On creating your own weapons in 3ds Max (2001-07-24)

First of all, effects will be handled programatically - at least that's what they tell me. ;) So you don't have to worry about those on your hammer. The only things you would have to keep in mind is the scale of the handle in particular and the pivot point must be where you want to hold the weapon. Before you export, you want to select your pivot point and hit those transform and scale buttons. Then you want to go to utilities and hit the reset xform. Collapse stack. When you export, face Mecca and think about onions - don't ask me why, but this seems to help. :D

Now that half of the deal is done. All that remains, is for you to put your object in the editor, and your character can hold your new hammer. :)
There, that was easy, wasn't it?
Until next time, take care and happy modeling!

Follow up on weapon textures (2001-07-24)

No, you need to put them into the textures directory... at least that's how we are doing it now. I have no idea if this will change for release. Remember to make your textures a power of 2! .bmp or .tga format

Insights into texture creation (2001-07-25)

Sorry to confuse everyone - guess I've been hanging out with the programmers for too long...:P
A power of 2 texture is a progression as follows...
2x2=4
4x2=8
8x2=16
16x2=32
32x2=64
64x2=128
128x2=256
256x2=512
and well we generally stop there...
now the width and height of a texture can be any one of those numbers, but really long and skinny textures are not as good as ones that are more square. The programmers tell me this has something to do with memory and texture swapping... or their dirty laundry... can't remember which...
Hope that clears some of it up. :)

On the differences in the process of modeling shields and modeling weapons (2001-07-26)

Shields are created basically the same way, although the pivotpoint is not exactly the center of the shield object, so it might take you a few tries to get it right. But the shield itself will get attached in the same way a weapon would via a "shield bone".
Armor is way more difficult, though - especially for the cuirasses. Suffice it to say, you need the exact bone structure in the same scale in the same space and orientation that we use here. Not sure if this structure will be released or not...
Hope this helps. :)

On variations of eye color for characters (2001-07-27)

Indeed there are different red eyes in the game. Thought perhaps there was a little "other" elf in their family tree, although they would probably hate to admit it. :)

Commenting on the mouth of the Hunger, modeled by Mark Jones (2001-07-31)

Believe me, he can feed on your inner juices just fine. :)

Discussion on the inspiration the Flukeman from The X-Files served for the Hunger (2001-08-01)

Go right ahead! The Potty Monster didn't have a tail, long fingers and a surprise...
There are many creatures that have round holes with grasping teeth for a mouth... all you have to do is look to your friendly neighborhood lamprey, which is where we got some of the idea.
Frankly, I'm glad it reminds you of Porto John... he was one scary creature. :D

On programmers "blowing up NPCs" (2001-08-09)

Nope didn't make it up! The proggies blow up the NPC's every day. Poor NPC's... They just keep coming back for more though. Guess they don't have anything better to do :D

The Cats and Lizzies are walking around now with a full animation suite... but they still have goofy voices (placeholders) " Hey there stranger!" *shudder*

On the animations for the beast races (2001-08-18)

Yes the basic suite of animations have been completed for both of the beast races. This is because they both use the SAME animation. Now before you go screaming off into the hills... this was done in the interest of saving space time continuim and said animator's sanity. But I think I can fanagle some special anims for each race :) After all, I wrung the beast races themselves out of the programers.
*waves hand* "you WILL put in beast races...."
*programmer's eyes glaze over* "beast races will be in the game....yes"
Anyway, those race animations went in just this last week and just walking around the cube city here, I see more cats and lizzies being player characters than not... so, I'm guessing people like them :) You'll just have to wait to see how cool they are. It was quite challenging making a cat and a lizard mix, but I think it worked out well
Bad side - now that I've done these guys and made them cool, I want to redo the mundanes... ack!!!

On the possibility of multiple death animations (2001-08-21)

;) [ed. - me thinks this implies yes...]

On the topic of the lack of werewolves in base Morrowind (2001-08-21)

As an advocate for the Khajiit and Argonians, I fought hard to get them in the game when it appeared that there was a chance to include them, make them unique without impacting the storyline. I also reasoned that cool looking werewolves would be a cinch to do. And they would be - art wise. But with no cool quests to involve werewolf players, what would the point be? They are special and should be treated as such. This chapter of the Elder Scrolls simply isn't about them. It's all about the story, for us anyways. A game shouldn't be all about the cool features that you can jam pack in a game just because someone else did it or it was in a previous chapter. At least in my opinion. But what do I know?

Are Ash Slaves undead? (2001-08-23)

Ash Slaves aren't dead...yet... they aspire to be the next incarnation to better serve their god :)

Quick description of the Ascended Sleeper (2001-08-24)

But the Ascended sleeper, he's just messed up. Some diseases, it seems give you cool abilities and neato speedo appendages.

On the claim that recent prerelease images were concept art (2001-09-04)

'Cept that aint no concept art! That's the real deal. You see that? You wear it! The cool thing is, you can wear different parts of those armors all together... I can hardly wait for ugly armor/clothes mixup screenshot of the month ;)

Differences between male and female Argonians (2001-09-05)

You may actually be able to tell males and females apart. Clothed or no. The careful observer will note that male Argonians have larger crests or horns often augmented with gold and earings. The females generally have very short horns, but they like to dress themselves up with jewelry and feathers. Another distinguishing factor is that males are much more brightly colored than the drab females. If you have no basis for comparison, always look in the eyes as there is no typical mammalian physiological dimorphism. Females always have red eyes.

Differences between male and female Khajiit (2001-09-06)

Actually, the one in the background of that screenshot is a female. The females tend to be darker in coloration and have larger, rounder eyes as well as typical humanoid (albeit fur covered) female physiology. They have also succumbed to human fashion whims by wearing earrings, of a feminine design - not those hoop earrings the males are so fond of.

On if the game supports special character fonts (2001-09-07)

Indeed, those characters are included in the fonts.

On Khajiit and Argonian tails (2001-09-07)

The tails of Khajiit and Argonians will always poke through any armor or clothing they decide to wear. They need it for balance after all. :) Humanoid pants, strangely enough, fit them just fine. It's boots that they have a hard time with.

Appreciating recent developer praise (2001-09-28)

We do indeed rule. Thanks for noticing. :D

From what I've seen of the forum world, though, it's YOU guys that make us want to come out and play. We really like the bouncing of ideas back and forth. The different perspectives... The joking and even the critisism. Thanks for everything,and I look forward to your ideas on werebeasties, naked horses, and liche climbing in the future. ;)

On the topic of some creatures, notably Daedra, having humanoid chests (2001-10-06)

STILL sore about that one AFFA? Wow that was months ago. ;)
The only thing is that it was so similar to a Tool logo I saw... true it wasn't 3d or animated or anything...

On the ability for mod makers to merge their work (2001-10-12)

We do merges at least 10 times a day. Raid has a formletter for it now.
There is a new Morrowind master file on the network

On the possibly of attaching a Khajiit tail to a Human model (2001-10-19)

The bone structure is quite different from that of the normal humans, so I don't think it would be possible to tack on an articulated tail onto a human butt. Now if you want a pole sticking out of it, that's another matter entirely. :D

Ever tried tying a cats tail to one of its back legs? Crazy fun, their balance is sorely affected...

Improved ash storms and sound effects over earlier versions (2001-10-21)

"Yeah, the ash storms look waaaaay better now. And the sound that goes with them *shudder* makes me wanna run for cover!"

On the premise that goo, realistic combat maneuvers, boils down to good animation (2001-11-02)

*shriek*
er, it also boils down to collision and AI. Got to account for everything ;)

Commenting on "gnomish" elements in the game, alluding to the Colovian Fur Helm (2001-11-09)

Actually, there is this ONE helmet that looks for all the world like a gnomish hat...
Was gonna remove it, but the illustrious Todd thinks it is so funny he wants to leave it in *sigh* So, find the 2 guys in the world that are wearing it, kill them take that hat and pretend to be a gnome. Some of the woodelves do look gnomish already you know...

On the rumor that Vampirism was limited to only human races (2001-11-12)

Oh really? Then why did they have me make vampire versions for EVERY race? Either someone is fibbing, doesn't know, or they told me wrong. ;)

On the various preferences for tattoos between races (2001-11-20)

Some races like the tattoos more than others. The Nords love their woad and the Dark Elves have more obscure permanent ones. The orcs also display their clan pride with a heavily tattooed face. Most women, however, don't really care for this sort of thing, but some are not above ritual scarring...

On the finer details of female Argonian and Khajiit biology (2001-11-27)

I'd like to point out here that the Argonian females don't have er.. mammalian physical features. Just before you go wild on that texture tweaking Kahjiit, however, do but they are naked already hehe. Just covered with fur... *Imagines with horror at all of the shaved kitties that will soon be walking the world*

On the process of modeling weapons for Morrowind (2001-11-27)

All the weapons should be one object. It makes life much simpler. You can simply "attach" each object to the main object. If the materials are different, that's ok too, just tell that pesky dialogue box to not modify your materials. Eventually, you will get one multi-sub object material. Make sure you transform, scale the pivot point which should be located in the handle where you would want the character to grip the sword. You will also want to use the utility called xform.
Make sure that in the TOP view, the pointy end is facing the top of your monitor and the blade edge is on the right hand side. This orientation is most important, unless you want it to look like you enjoy cutting yourself!

Now, the only way that a weapon would have to be multiple objects, is if there are more than one alpha textured object involved. Say you have a blade with fancy feathers hanging off the hilt...now these feathers are actually a polygon with an alpha texture of a feather on it. If you include multiples of these into one object, in the game they will cancel each other out and you will not be able to see the other feather behind the one on top. You must then make these feathers separate objects and LINK them to the main object. You will then select the main object (call it W_FEATHERSWORD). EXPORT SELECTED. The link will then come across and you will see all the feathers from all angles. Little bit of manipulation there, but easy enough, once you know what to do

Let me know if I can help...er confuse you further

Polycounts for playable races (2001-11-28)

Erm... actually characters are in general, around 5,000 polys.

On getting workable custom models made for Morrowind (2001-11-28)

ooooOOOOOoooh very pretty, now take off 1,000 polys... muaaahahaha. A little texture goes a long way to create what you did in polys. In fact, make texture out of your render and apply it to your lower res model...voila...won't be able to tell the difference - from a distance hehehe. :)

On creating custom models for flails and morningstars in Morrowind (2001-11-28)

Ack! That is a completely different animal! This actually requires animation of the weapon itself via a BONE or MORPHER
system. Now, since this is a one handed weapon more or less, you would have to take the animation for those attacks, merge your flail or morningstar or whatever into that file and then animate it to match.
Quite difficult.
If you still want to continue down this path, I will relate more.
However, I am not sure if the actual animation file will be made available...

Follow up on details for creating flails and morningstars in Morrowind (2001-11-29)

If the feathers are stationary, you've got no problems. Just export like I mentioned in the last post. If you want the feathers to move, you are going to have to animate them using a bone system that you attach to the sword via PHYSIQUE. This way when you move the bones, your mesh will move with them. However, see post about flails and why this will be a big pain in the *** :)

Further replies about creating animated weapon types in Morrowind (2001-11-29)

Step one: go to HEIRARCHY tab - the one that has this box with three little boxes attached to it(next to MODIFIER tab)
At the bottom, there are 2 buttons - Transform, scale - with your mesh selected - click these buttons. :)

Next: go to UTILITIES (tab that looks like a hammer) One of those options says Reset Xform. Click it.

Now: Go to MODIFIER. The yellow sub object button will be highlighted. Click off. Then, COLLAPSE the STACK.

Voila!

The reasoning behind all of this madness is that any rotations or scales that you had previously put on your object will now be stripped away and your resulting object will be pure and render exactly as you see it in MAX. If you don't do this, you might wind up with a sword that's the size of Detroit! This is because the original scales and rotations are retained in the history of the object... until you perform the "X" procedure. :D

On the functionality of shields for Hand-to-hand (2001-11-30)

If you "equip" Hand to hand [sic], your shield automatically unequips. No fuss no muss.

On the technical debt which would be incurred by creating kicking animations for the Hand-to-hand skill (2001-12-03)

Kicking with robes on?! Ever think how that would look? *Bemoans the horror of near clipping planes and the distinct possiblity [sic] of not being able to see a damned thing*

You can't make me do it! Never! :D

On Hand-to-hand animation beast variations (2001-12-04)

Hand to hand [sic] will look different for the beast races..... :D

Following up on discussion on the importance of Fatigue, and other questions (2001-12-05)

You can jump and attack at the same time. You can attack and walk at the same time. You can run and attack. You can sneak and attack...but no chewing gum... sorry.
No tattoo parlors... we have many varieties to choose from in character generation however.
Not sure what you mean by the last thing... so... I'll leave that to someone else :D

On playtesting the Healer (2001-12-05)

I get to test the healer class w00t!
Going to be the passive aggressive type that will club things to death if they mess with me. We'll see how far I get... Morrowind is a harsh place.

On animation files and underwear (2001-12-12)

The animation file has more than just the animation data in it. It has the structure and also placeholder data for the programmers. This basically says that a body part labeled "chest" or "foot" will go in the appropriate place. So, you see, if we don't give you the structure of the "base-anim" as we like to call it, meanin the MAX file, you'll have no idea where to start. Evil, huh? But if we did release this file...(not saying we areTM) you could plug in any animations you wanted. Yes... even the burping and farting... you might even be able to tag a sound to it...(not my department so don't quote me on thatTM)

I neglected to say that the females have Vivec brand undies and the males have ConanWearTM.... :D

On whether you could mix and match hilts and blades in Morrowind (2001-12-17)

Each weapon is one object. There can be no mixing and matching of hilts and blades. However, you can put whatever magic effect you want on them. So if we haven't made the Dagger of Nosepicking, then you could make this spell in the editor, define it's effects, and stick it on a dagger. Supreme nosepicking...I amuse myself...

On creating reduced size models with youthfully textured faces (2001-12-18)

You could do that, but your kids will be ...er ... well developed shall we say?

On the rarity of Daedric weapons, and Ra'Virr's "Daedric" weapons (2001-12-18)

I found this one weapons salesman and he said that he had Daedric stuff - only the best. When you persist in asking about them he admits that no, they are actually not Daedric but they are very good swords! Lying Kahjiit! *grumble* So, I think you will have to do a lot of hack and slash to get those special black and red goodies

2002

On giving a "rating" to the game so far (2002-01-09)

Hmmm... won't really know how to rate it until it's done...
Right now we are doing a lot of game balancing. the first time I played it, everything was way too hard, and if you weren't a hack and slash character with thieving abilities, you died like a dog. i couldn't even kill a rat! sad huh? The good thing is we can tweak all of these settings to make a nice, well-rounded gaming experience for all types of players - even if it means all you want to do is go berry-picking :D

On importing models into the Construction Set (2002-01-15)

Weeeelll, let's just say that importing a creature will be far easier than a new type of NPC. With creatures, you have free rein on the bone structure at least. NPC's are a complicated kettle of fish. What, with their pieces and parts and complex animation scheme and all...Again, not sure if we will be releasing this bone structure for you to use.... I believe there is more in depth info over at the mod forum for you to check out...
And, Dalin... you will suffer for making me crawl out of my hole.... ;p

On a good race to play the Healer class (2002-01-24)

I have indeed found it easier to play a high elf healer than a khajiit one. That magicka multiplyer is what really keeps you alive when you are busy running away and healing yourself! However, running is far easier for a khajiit. i an usually outrun the lower level things and switch to my crab mallet, heal, and wack. nothing more satisfying than wacking those peel and eat crabs :D (hey a healer's gotta eat too!)

On some ideas for Argonian and Khajiit foods (2002-01-25)

You can even eat bonemeal from skeletons... seems to have "modest magical properties"

With some pointers for making models for bows (2002-02-05)

Hah! this is one of those difficult things again. The bow is a mix of MORPHING and bone structure. And each bow is animated individually to sync with the character drawing animation. If we release a MAX file, all you would have to do is make sure you match everything up and all will work well. However, I'm not sure if we will be allowed to do that, (insert legal yada yada here).

Do clothes have an effect on combat? (2002-02-10)

No. Not unless you enchanted your pants ;)

On breathing animations for character models (2002-02-12)

*Puffs up with indignation* NPC's and the player do too breathe!

And no, you don't have to follow a god to receive blessings. The Dunmer are rather more practical about these sorts of things. For a modest donation at any temple, you can receive a blessing or a cure. Sure is handy when you get that nasty boil on your... yeah, well anyways. However, if you do wish to be the church going type, the donation is considerably less :D
There are some rumors in Morrowind that a certain god wants all the beings as his children...
So, some deities may hold your cards. Or your lifeline, or whatever.

Is terrain made up of cubic cells? (2002-02-25)

close - its actually a mesh. think of it like a piece of cloth - you pick a tiny bit in the middle and pull straight up. the higher you lift it, the more of the cloth gets pulled up. so you cant just take one cell and make it higher than the rest - you pull one vertice up, the others nearby will get higher, too.

On enchanting her own hammer (2002-02-27)

I had to find a soul gem, find a creature, cast soul trap on the creature -kill it within the alloted time thus capturing it's soul (don't worry I said a mighty prayer for the fallen, Pulp Fiction style) and then take this gem to an enchanter and pay him good money to embue my hammer with the paralyzation spell which I had already learned some time ago.

On the possibility for Paralysis-enchanted weapons to remove the challenge from the game (2002-02-27)

Don't worry about that, they are still a challenge! Monsters have a chance to resist the spell, so it's not always a sure thing. I don't like fighting in general as I'm supposed to be a healer, so in reality I hit the thing and run away. (Remember, this was a demo, and he wanted to see creatures...)I also have very few hitpoints. The paralyzation hammer is a good thing unless I want to reload a lot. I have no such compunctions when fighting undead however. I feel they are an abomination and must be destroyed with any means necessary. Walk into the light o my Brothers!

On how robes work (2002-02-28)

Robes will work like this: They will cover (ie. model replace) everything except your hands, feet, neck and head. These will be shown with whatever they have on them. We decided to put the huge "extra pauldrons" like the Ordinator ones over the robes just because it looks cool. Hope this answers your question.

2011

On Argonian smiles (2011-08-17)

Argonians can smile but it's all toothy and looks almost like a snarl. Will you get close enough to find out the difference?

*slinks back to the darkness for more coffee*

2019

On Oblivion's character classes art (2019-03-24)

Hello Christiane, sorry to bother you with a bit of a weird question. Do you happen to know if it was you or someone else who did The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion character class art?

Thanks for messaging me. I try to be as responsive as possible. I'll get back to you soon. Have a great day!

No I did not do that bit. Natalia Smirnova did those.