Need Some Advice Before Completing My Mod

[ToppDog]

My boarding school mod is nearly complete after several beta releases, but there are a few things I'd like to do that are beyond my knowledge or skills...

 

1. Is there a way to have players assign their followers to factions, either through a console command, or by a script? My mod has restrictions on furniture/bed use based on factions I have created, & I'd like the players to be able to assign their followers to several of these factions.

 

2. Is there a good resource for working bunk beds? Or, any mods that have a good example of working ones, instead of ones that are just for show? I'd like to be able to have working bunk beds for added immersion & to increase the available beds for the players that want to recruit additional students.

 

3. Are there any resources that either replace the childrens underwear with bathing suits, or puts on a bathing suit over their underwear? My mod has an olympic sized swimming pool that I would like them to swim in while in a school uniform type of bathing suit, instead of their regular clothing or underwear.

 

4. How can I make the NPC's use the diving platforms to jump into the water? The pool has three diving platforms with pseudo load door markers to travel from the ladders to the platforms, & I'd like to create an AI package that allows their sandboxing to include jumping off the platforms & swimming around in the pool. Everything is navmeshed, except for the way to jump off the platform, because I'm not sure exactly how I should do it. But the other problem is getting them to get on top of the platforms. I have never had success getting any NPC to use a load door that goes to somewhere within the same cell. I've only been able to do something like this by making them travel to a different cell, & then back to the new spot in the original cell.

 

For anyone that's willing to give me their expert advice, you can check out what I've done so far in the beta 10 release of DragonsKeep. I'm still working on the next update, but I'm mainly finishing up the aesthetics, & adding clutter, etc. until I can figure out how to do any of the above.

 

[Oubliette]

2. Not to my knowledge. I've seen it requested before but since there's no climbing animation it doesn't seem likely. Might be possible to fake it by using some kind of steps instead of a ladder though.

 

3. Well... no. The whole subject of switching the kids underthings is a big ol' kettle of worms to be honest. Though if you can create or get someone to create a bathing suit that is equipped in the same way armor is then you could probably use a conditional clothing change script to change them to their swimsuits whenever by the pool but I'd run that one by the staff first to make sure it's still in compliance with the rules.

 

Hope that helps, good luck.

[Mattiewagg]

1. Yep. AddToFaction

2. Not sure how to do the ladder, but if you got a resource for the beds you could simply put the idle marker for sleeping on the beds.

Possible, but you'd need the resource, and like Oubliette said... It's on the edge.

?

[ToppDog]

Thanks! I made some headway with testing the bunk beds. NPC's will move up a ladder prior to activating the lay down animation, & when they get out of bed it looks like they're jumping down - Perfect! Now I just need to learn how to edit the mesh of the beds to make it look like a top bunk.

[mrpdean]

I was working on the same idea for bunk beds in my mod but I don't think I'll end up using them. Could send you the nifs if you want them.

 

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=zxwf4&s=8#.VBZa2nM_7qA

[ToppDog]

Those look very nice! I was trying something like this, but with the bedding flipped to the top, & some added posts:

 

http://i.imgur.com/jFZECXW.png

 

I'd love to get those .nif files though. I haven't attempted editing meshes/textures yet at all, so it would probably tale me forever to do what you did :)

Edited September 15, 2014 by ToppDog

[mrpdean]

No problem. I didn't end up using them because I made the room larger and so single beds ended up looking better in my mod. When I was thinking of using them they were going to have to be up against a wall so I didnt have the option of having the top bunk accessible from the other side.

 

Anyway, I'll center the ladder and give you left and right versions of both the top and bottom beds which should cover all options :) just give me a day to tidy it all up and I'll pm you the files.

Edited September 15, 2014 by mrpdean

[ToppDog]

Thanks a ton! Although, to make it easier you could just remove the ladder instead of switching it around. I should be able to use the ladder I made, & that way I can adjust where it goes. After some more testing, some of them are climbing it, & some are still floating up from the bottom, so I need to tweak it a bit more to get it just right.

 

I found that using the WHstep1 model really allows the player & NPC's to really be able to step up to very high heights, even when it is shrunk way down. I made a row of them small enough to fit inside the rungs of the ladder & set the ladder at a five degree angle. This may be a way for players to be able to use ladders too, but I couldn't do it with the ones on the bunk bed, & I think it might be because either the ladder was too small at 50%, or because the ladder model needs to have no collision, not sure.

 

I'm definitely going to test it more though, because it may allow the npc's to climb the ladders to my diving platforms too.

[mrpdean]

Ok. I will remove the ladder.

 

So you just want normal/static nifs, and use a seperate furniture marker? At the moment these are proper furniture nifs so the furniture markers are built in to them, but its easy enough for me to convert them.

 

Clever idea about filling the gaps in the rungs with tiny steps. Might have a play with that for my own mod. Getting ladders to work would open up many possibilities :)

[ToppDog]

Yeah, I just got done testing it a little more. I layered about five of those steps from floor to head level, & then adjusted them so they were only stepped in 1 grid unit increments, & I was still able to climb to the top. I still don't know how to remove collision from an object though, but I have a feeling removing the collision from the ladder & removing all textures from the steps will do the trick. I was even able to climb them when they weren't staggered by using jump.

 

And, yeah, the normal static nifs are fine, or I can always make a static item out of them if need be, too. There is an invisible child bed marker that has the Right/Left markers closer to the center that I might play around with. It might force the NPC's to climb up to reach it since it doesn't stick out over the edge of the bed as much.