Source corpus & preprocessing

The Definitive builder deliberately separates what belongs in Starwind from how historical TSI deployment happened to be assembled.

Included sources

The builder compiles the following fixed inputs:

Naboo is intentionally part of the modern single-player/Definitive corpus; it is not treated as a multiplayer-only addon.

Explicitly excluded sources

StarwindMPRecords
StarwindVvardenfell

These are not compiled, cleaned, merged, or used as dependency inputs by the Definitive builder.

The source manifest records both included-source hashes and excluded logical sources so accidental corpus drift is visible.

Why the old TSI preprocess cannot be reused

The old TSI build path mixed legitimate source integration with server policy. It included operations whose explicit purpose was to remove or replace content for multiplayer.

Examples of historical TSI-only behavior that Definitive must not inherit:

• use of a nomq Patch variant rather than the normal main-quest source;
• TSI gold substitution (random gold -> tsi_gold and related leveled records);
• TSI Kolto substitutions;
• Taris and other instance deletions labeled as records that should not exist in MP;
• Freighter/embassy replacements supplied by MP-side scripts/plugins;
• SW_CourteCompScript multiplayer cleanup;
• SW_ShipQuester removal;
• Hutt/Ragax/Badhiya reference removals labeled as broken MP refs;
• Vvardenfell-specific surgery;
• MPRecords merge/deployment assumptions.

Some old Shade/Thegg deletion commands were commented out in the historical script, but the surrounding TSI path was destructive enough that Definitive uses an explicit whitelist rather than trying to turn TSI preprocessing into a new product with switches.

Reviewed Definitive preprocessing

The current builder performs only operations that have been reviewed as source hygiene, merge integration, or explicit Definitive design policy.

General source hygiene

The historical Builder transcription contains known fixes such as typo/text corrections, removal of stale compiled script bytecode before recompilation, known junk-cell cleanup, and other source repairs accumulated during Starwind maintenance.

The implementation is the source of truth for the exact commands. This wiki records the reason and status of each class of change rather than duplicating hundreds of command-line selectors that could drift out of sync.

Bing integration

Bing's Race Pack is treated as base content and merged into Enhanced first. Reviewed dirty-cell/bodypart/duplicate-reference cleanup is allowed where it resolves known plugin integration defects rather than multiplayer policy.

Alt Start integration

Alt Start contributes the background-selection escape pods to the canonical Imperial Prison Ship cell. The Definitive build preserves those source-owned placements because StarwindMPRecords is intentionally excluded; deleting the whole Alt Start cell would incorrectly remove the pod doors while leaving some of their definitions behind. The canonical merge therefore retains the Alt Start cell additions while the existing Starwind prison-ship content remains authoritative.

Naboo integration

Naboo's obsolete DRM/test machinery is removed as source hygiene. Attachments and dependencies must be removed coherently; a deletion that leaves live containers or other records referring to the removed object is considered a build bug and is caught by closure validation.

Enhanced cleanup

Known duplicate/reference/bodypart corrections discovered during earlier Starwind/TSI maintenance remain valid when they fix the data itself rather than enforcing multiplayer behavior.

Main-quest preservation guard

The Definitive builder has a dedicated regression guard because historical multiplayer builds deliberately removed portions of the main quest.

The current anchor set includes reviewed quest DIALs, Shade NPCs, Shade scripts, SW_ShipQuester, and a required live SW_ShipQuester cell reference. The exact set is emitted to main-quest-preservation.json.

Checks occur at four stages:

1. before Definitive preprocessing;
2. after Definitive preprocessing;
3. after canonical merge;
4. after master decoupling.

The post-preprocess check examines only the active staged source filenames. tes3cmd backup plugins (~1.esm, ~2.esp, etc.) are excluded so deleted main-quest content cannot be hidden by a stale backup copy.

Enchantment normalization

Unenchanted CLOT, ARMO, and WEAP records are normalized to enchantment capacity 375.

This is intentional Definitive Edition game design. Long-term TSI experience showed that players valued easier personalization and equipment freedom. Starwind is not trying to reproduce Morrowind's original balance merely because Morrowind supplied the engine.

Source edit versus build policy

Use this rule:

Canonical source cleanup belongs in plugins/*.json when a source record is actually corrupt, redundant, or intentionally removed from Starwind.

Build policy belongs in build_starwind.py when it describes how valid sources are combined into the Definitive product.

Bethesda-only dependency surgery belongs in staged work copies under .swbuild/definitive/work/, never in canonical Bethesda JSON.

This distinction is why, for example, dirty Starwind INFOs were removed from Starwind source while the 53 known-dead Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon INFOs are pruned only from temporary vanilla masters during the build.

API index · Build pipeline · Historical cleanup ledger