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blankstate

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  1. Hiya EmilianoCAPT! All you have to do is create a folder - Skyrim/Data/Music. Music files go in there. You'll have to check the directory structure of your BSA in order to determine where your song is going to go. For instance, main theme music goes in /Music/Special/, world exploration music goes in /Explore/, combat music goes in /Combat/, etc. You simply drop your new .xwm files in the appropriate directory and voila, presto change-o. :D And Madsa, I am indeed! It's a little rocky to start with, though -- there's gonna be some tuning involved before the 'finale' parts work more smoothly into the music. I also have some files that won't play. I think it might have to do with the original format of the file (i.e., not everything in my iTunes library is MP3 - I don't think the MP4s/AACs converted smoothly into WAV, etc. etc.) but I'm not sure yet. Will have to do some detective work on that front.
  2. So far so good! Have all of the outdoor world exploration replaced, dungeon music replaced, Castle Dour and Stormcloak HQ music replaced, working on combat music right now -- each song includes a 'finale' that plays if combat ends early, so that threw a bit of a speedbump in my way. Hope you're making good progress, Madsa. :)
  3. In the music mod I'm working on right now, Fort Dour's theme was replaced with the Stormwind City theme from World of Warcraft and the Stormcloaks got Orgrimmar's theme. >_> Yeah.
  4. Hey, no problem! Happy to help. As an update, I totally tried to preview the files using my WMP and it didn't work. >_> I am currently updating my VLC Media Player and will see how that plays out. I swear I saw someone say you could listen to the music using WMP... EDIT: Okay, yeah, VLC works. It's a little choppy/clippy (sounds like the decoder is having trouble keeping up with the file -- which is understandable, as xWMA is capable of compressing a 24MB file into a 980KB file) but you can definitely hear the music enough to get an idea of the length/mood/etc.! P.S. - Just don't go changing the level up sound to the Final Fantasy victory music or anything. ;D P.P.S. - ... He said, as he began to drop World of Warcraft music into his game. <_<; God help us all.
  5. Hiya Madsa! Welcome to the forums. I got here like... 12 hours ago. XD The game will indeed read replacement sound files from a directory created inside the Data folder (e.g., for the main menu music it's /Data/music/special/mus_maintheme.xwm.) You need merely pop open the .bsa you found with a program like BSAUnpacker or Fallout Mod Manager and get the file names of the music you want to replace. Extracting them and listening to them so you can idea for their tempo, length, and other factors is probably a really good idea too. Windows Media Player can play/preview .xwm files, so you won't have to decode them to handle this step. As for ADDITIONAL music (i.e., new music, if that's what you meant), I don't think we can do that quite yet. To convert .WAV files into .XWM files, check thissere thread out: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/470044-how-to-encode-xwma-files/ EDIT: I just ran through the BSA and extracted all the music files. XWMA is magical freaking compression! Only 89.5MB for everything (though it's possible I missed something here and there).
  6. Gar. Disregarding the Soul Gem concept, black powder is made from sulfur, carbon (charcoal), and saltpeter. The latter starts with a mineral (saltpetre) which, when boiled down with water and mixed with wood ash, leaves solution of potassium nitrate that can be crystallized and voila, you have saltpeter. Fire Salts sound like they could take the place of Sulfur or Saltpeter. Charcoal is a common item from vendors that's utterly worthless in-game. Heck, why not say Fire Salts take the place of both Sulfur and Saltpeter and voila, Fire Salts+Charcoal = Gunpowder. Then we go to the forge and combine Gunpowder (2), Tundra Cotton (2) (fantastic idea, Don!), and one metal ingot to create ammunition. I would say 2-5 at a time would be good numbers; definitely no more than 10 as pucher said. Firearms wise, I'm primarily thinking of long rifles, but the idea of having pistol/carbine/rifle is great IMO. Do note that if any of the Fallout 3 projectile weapon code is left over you can determine the spread, zoom factor on aim, whether it uses a scope, bullet velocity, arc, and other factors so you could really accurately portray that the pistol has a far shorter point blank range than the rifle. Loving this idea so far! EDIT: Given the limitation on drop numbers for Fire Salts, I would err on the side of having firearms be very powerful relative to other weapons. Granted, in real life arrows do much more damage to a human body than a bullet in most cases, but even if you normalized the numbers firearms could still have a massive range advantage so you can really make your shots count. With my bow a lot of times I end up panicking and just twanging arrows off the string because I couldn't get quite as much distance as I wanted.
  7. Yeah, Aela's face paint is ... Just bizarre. I also found the Companion questlines to be kinda 'Wha?' Not enough time spent with the members, I really didn't give a damn about any of them except Aela because she was the only one who didn't seem perfectly content to just chill in Jorvasskr all day and do absolutely nothing. I must admit, I was incredibly touched when I read Kodlak's diary though. That's definitely one of my most memorable moments in Skyrim.
  8. Oh! Holy crap, I didn't even see that. I'm so sorry. @_@ Unfortunately this method is the only way I know of to encode XWMA files. If you'd like I can drop you my e-mail address in a PM and convert the file for you then send it back?
  9. Psssst. http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/470044-how-to-encode-xwma-files/ :D
  10. Having played both sides I personally side with the Empire. Jarl Balgruuf is most concerned with the wellbeing of his people. The Empire has provided stability, commerce, and military protection to Skyrim for hundreds of years. He sees absolutely no reason to shake the foundation just because "they're not Nords." Moreover, the Empire hasn't done anything wrong. Ulfric Stormcloak, on the other hand, is starting a revolution based on racial prejudice and a Manifest Destiny-esque vision of Skyrim that offers no real game plan. His philosophy literally ends at 'and then we make sure Nords are the master race of Skyrim.' His main concern is his hatred for elves and the fact that the Imperium consorts with them. I find his motivations highly suspect and his followers even more so. When my character was standing there during his right hand man's motivation speech before the battle for Whiterun I thought to myself, 'Wow. These guys are seriously cracked. This is nonsense.' The Stormcloak Rebellion strikes me as an utterly pointless revolution. The only thing it's going to do is wreck homes and get people killed and for what? Because he's butthurt that someone else has a stake in his nation's continued survival? He's a friggin' Jarl. All of the other Jarls? They're Jarls too. They're in direct command and control of their Holds. The Empire has not installed authoritarian dictators to rule Skyrim on its behalf. They're not levying unfair taxes on Skyrim's trade or really doing anything bad. Ulfric is starting a revolution because it makes him feel good.
  11. For the sake of design I would keep it simple. With bows the quality of the weapon itself is important because it allows greater strength in the draw. The relative power of a firearm is based more on ammunition (let's throw rifling, barrel length, etc. out the window for simplicity). So at most I'd say the firearms should be craftable from iron or steel, upgradeable with Ingots as with other weaponry, and the ammunition made from an Alchemy compound and more ingots. Therefore the strong upgrades for bows come from crafting bows, whereas the strong upgrades for guns come from crafting ammunition. Also saves on modeling/texturing time. I would propose the following model: Basic guns can be crafted from Iron, Steel, and Firewood. Can be upgraded with appropriate Ingots. Ingredient X (the proposed Volatile Soul Gem Powder) + Metal Ingots = Ammunition. Power scales with quality of metal used. Based off Marksman skill, uses Archery perks (again, for simplicity's sake). Would have to figure out some way to make the ammunition unrecoverable, though, which would make the 'recover 2x more arrows' perk useless.
  12. I actually married Muiri on my first playthrough (and converted her into a companion, but not a very good one). Didn't have any trouble. I did notice in my trials with attempting to convince Karliah to marry me that sometimes NPCs who are locked into a specific dialogue feedback (e.g., your current state with Muiri) won't take up the change, so you might need to handle a quest or two in the Dark Brotherhood line before she clears out of that dialogue cycle and opens up to marriage.
  13. Hmm. Further thought yields this: Alchemy creates 'Volatile Soul Gem Powder' using Fire Salts and Petty Soul Gems. Using Blacksmithing, metal ingots and Volatile Soul Gem Powder can be crafted into a set number of '<Insert Metal> Charges' (e.g., '5x Iron Charges) to create ammunition of scaling power akin to arrows. Poof.
  14. I think it's totally appropriate. Denizens of Tamriel can create magical elixirs that make you resistant to the elements and increase abilities which would normally take years of training to improve. In fact, while we're at it, they can imbue a fancy wooden stick with the power to project exploding balls of flame -- I'm sure someone SOMEWHERE has entertained the idea of stuffing a soul gem into the chamber of a crude 'footman's cannon' and detonating it to propel a projectile. Boom, there's your ammo. Petty Soul Gems. Any more powerful and it'll blow up your face. I was actually thinking bombs would be fantastic as an addition to the Alchemy crafting set. Poison gas bombs, flash bombs, smoke bombs, etc. are absolutely appropriate for thief/rogue types. In fact, I had a pretty hard time figuring out how being sneaky worked -- I can't tell you how many times I thought, 'I wish I could chuck a damn smoke bomb down and GTFO right now.'
  15. Decided to pull this out from my Game of Thrones Cover Main Menu Theme Replacement Mod and pop it up here to get the word out! The first thing you need to know is that Skyrim reads .xwm files for its audio. The only utility I was able to find that converts audio files (WAVs, specifically) into .xwm format is a utility in the Microsoft DirectX Software Developer's Kit. The SDK is around 500+ MB, so please make sure you really want to go through with this before downloading and installing. The latest DirectX SDK build is from June 2010. Your Visual Basic C++ redistributable packages may be and probably are more current, and this will cause errors with the SDK's installation. You may need to uninstall your most recent or two most recent packages via Add/Remove Programs in order for the SDK installation to work. Once installed, navigate (in Windows) to the directory /Program Files/Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)/Utilities/bin/x86. Drop the file(s) you wish to convert in this folder. Rename them to something very simple, for example '1.wav.' Go to Start -> Run -> Type CMD and hit enter. This will bring up the DOS prompt. Type cd\ to return to root directory, and using 'cd <dir>', navigate to the folder above. For instance, on my computer, I go: cd program files cd microsoft directx sdk (june 2010) cd utilities cd bin cd x86 Once you're there, type 'xwmaencode <file.wav> <file.xwm>' For example, if I wanted to make '1.wav' into main menu music, I would type 'xwmaencode.exe 1.wav mus_maintheme.xwm'. Press 'enter' and voila, you have converted a file to .xwm format. I'm hoping someone releases a utility for this sometime in the future. I'm not sure if the entire SDK is required for xWMAEncode.exe to work. I may try pulling that out later on today and seeing if it can survive standalone, in which case I will put it... Somewhere where people can download it. It'd streamline the whole process quite a bit. Anyhow, hope someone finds this useful. :)
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