Tamriel Rebuilt ID Guidelines

These are ID naming conventions for the content files of Tamriel Rebuilt, such as TR_Mainland.esm and the in-development claims and release files that will be merged in it. This concerns new objects or scripts created when working on TR claims or section files – objects that are typically unique or tied to a specific claim, rather than the generic objects used repeatedly throughout the entire mod.

These are not the more strict ID conventions for assets in Tamriel_Data, the unified ESM that Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel use. If you are creating CS objects for a TR asset, those will go in Tamriel_Data and use Tamriel_Data's naming scheme (starting with "T_", not with "TR_").

If you search for Project Tamriel's ID guidelines, it has its own dedicated article.

General Pattern

TR_[map]_[location]_[...]_[what is it]

Ideally the ID of an object would tell you what it is, where it is, and what it's for, but IDs are limited to either 23 or 31 characters:

• up to 23 characters for NPCs, Creatures, Containers,
• up to 31 characters for anything else.

While in the Construction Set, you don't have to keep count of characters except for scripts and journals/topics – the CS will truncate IDs if they go over the limit. Hence the character limit is something you only need to keep in mind for script or journal IDs or when using other editors like tes3cmd to modify IDs.

What to put in place of the brackets?

[Map]: see below.

[Location] may refer to the settlement (if available) or region, initials or a shortened version of the claim name, whatever is most convenient.

Other optional prefixes for specific object types are described in the examples on this page – they can show that the object is linked with a quest  (_q_), linked to a faction (_MG_, _FG_...) or so on.

Prefixes indicating object type (such as Container, Light) are not generally needed unless objects from different types could try to use the same ID: if an ID already says "chest", it has no need for a "_cont_" prefix. Again scripts and journals/topics are an exception as the CS lets you give them the same name as existing objects, which leads to errors later – for scripts, adding a _sc_ prefix or suffix is best.

Map Number

Division of Map numbers. "Map 0" is sometimes used to refer to Vanilla Morrowind.

In Tamriel Rebuilt, the map ("m0"/"m1" to "m7") division, pictured below, is an arbitrary geographic division roughly tied to the borders of Imperial districts. While it no longer corresponds to public release steps (since 2008), it is still used both for internal organisation and for district-scale dialogue filtering.

The map prefix gives a general idea of which part of the mod an object is linked to. The prefix is _m4_ if the object is located in map 4.

More rarely, objects in the Vvardenfell area can use "m0", typically for TR content plugins such as TR_Factions.

Always add this prefix, even when something else in the ID already points to a more specific location. Think town initials are enough? Look at m1 journal IDs and see if you can guess where these quests take place.

Examples

These examples illustrate general guidelines. When making new object IDs, don't rely on the first TR objects you can see listed in the CS. Some old ones don't follow any convention and every now and then new incorrect IDs seep through.

New Objects in Interior/Exterior Claims

ID	ok?
T_MwDe_andasdesk	no!	- IDs starting with "T_" are Tamriel_Data IDs
TR_furn_andasdesk	no!	- missing map prefix
TR_m4_andasdesk	ok	- could use more claim/location info
TR_m4_andothren_andasdesk	too long	- would be ok if it weren't a container (character limit)
TR_m4_andoth_andasdesk	good
TR_i4_andoth_andasdesk	no.	- outdated naming scheme where you would use x/i/q for exterior, interior, or quest

Note: see the Interior modding tutorial for how to name the cell. You can also use that plus a map prefix as a basis for any new object IDs: TR_mX_claimid_stuff (e.g., TR_m7_LA6_Cave1somethingorother).

NPCs

NPCs have some additional bits which determine the type of NPC you are dealing with

"_o_" – denotes a hostile NPC

"_s_" – a slave or vampire cattle

"_q_" – quest NPCs, typically not present by default

"_d_" - a dead NPC

"_V_" - a vampire

"_C_" - a dev cameo (use the developer's username instead of the NPC's name in the ID)

ID	ok?
T_Mw_Amelphia	no!	- IDs starting with "T_" are Tamriel_Data IDs
TR_Amelphia	no!	- missing map prefix
TR_m3_Amelphia	ok	- preferably add last name if there is one
TR_m3_Amelphia_Tarramon	good
TR_m3_o_Amelphia	good	- a hostile NPC
TR_m3_q_Amelphia	good	- a NPC enabled by a quest
TR_m3_OE_MG_Amelphia	good	- a NPC with faction(MG)/location(OE)

Scripts

ID	ok?
T_ScNpc_Mw_Map3_Amelphia	no!	- IDs starting with "T_" are Tamriel_Data IDs
TR_Amelphia_Sc	no!	- missing map prefix
TR_m3_Amelphia	no!	- can not be distinguished from the ID of the object/NPC it's on
TR_m3_Amelphia_sc	good
TR_m3_sc_NPC_Amelphia	good
TR_m3_OE_MG_AmelphiaSC	good
TR_m3_OE_MG_q_AmelphiaTarramon_SC	no!	- over 31 characters

Note: The compiler doesn't verify that script IDs are different from object/journal IDs.

Journals

General pattern:

TR_[map]_[Faction initials if any]_[Settlement initials or "wil"derness otherwise]_[Quest title or Faction questgiver]

ID	ok?
TT_Foeburner	no!	- missing TR
TR_Wil_Foeburner	no!	- missing map prefix
TR_m3_Foeburner	no	- missing location or faction
TR_m3_wil_Foeburner	good	- a misc quest started in the wilderness, in a dungeon...
TR_m3_OE_Foeburner	good	- a misc quest started in Old Ebonheart
TR_m3_TG_Foeburner	good	- a Thieves Guild quest
TR_m3_TG_Fentus1	good	- a Thieves Guild quest given by Fentus
TR_m3_TG_OE_Fentus5_LostInChunzefk	no	- over 31 characters

Note: The CS doesn't verify that journal IDs are different from object/script IDs. Just take care not to give any object the same ID as your journal.

Quest Objects

ID	ok?
T_De_q_Pillow	no!	- IDs starting with "T_" are Tamriel_Data IDs
TR_cheesegs	no!	- what the hell?
TR_m3_cheesegs	???	- what's this?
TR_m3_q_cheesegs	???	- it's a quest item, but...?
TR_m3_OE_q_cheesegs	ok	- it's linked to a quest in OE
TR_m3_OE_MG_cheesegs	good	- still don't know what's cheesegs, but it's in an OE Mages Guild quest

Assets

See the Tamriel_Data ID scheme.