New To Modding, Looking For A Place For Feedback!

[MagneticN0rth]

Hi There,

 

I just recently acquisitioned The Elder scrolls V: Skyrim Legenendary Edition for the purpose of broadening my TESV experience from my travels in the Xbox 360 version. I have been interested in modding for a very long time. I have some minor experience with things such as the starcraft editor, UDK and other game creation tools. I have Blender and Gimp for mesh and model creation. Anyway, I have started modding lately and wanted to start off really small. So, I have been learning to mod already existing files via duplication such as spells and swords. This is kind of my plan.

 

Mods I hope to finish by early 2014:

 

Perks Redone

Restoration Spells That Matter

Racial casuals

 

Essentially I plan to edit the perk trees, create balanced spells, and redesign the racial bonuses for those players that don't really care about them. I've managed to create a few spells here and there as that seemed to be the easiest, but I was hoping I could get a few quick answers and feedback on some questions I have about the creation of spells and in general the Creation Kit?

 

1. When i start up the Creation Kit and go to load the dawnguard DLC the creation kit "flips out" and crashes eventually. Is this a known bug, and any general advice on loading content would be welcomed?

 

2. When creating a new spell via duplicating an already existing one does it inherit certain properties that cannot be edited and if so which properties is that?

 

3. This next question may seem a bit confusing, but is there a way to edit the spell's art? Say I wanted to use firebolt but I wanted it to actually cast a lightning bolt from the sky bathed in fire. i would imagine that's a bit more complicated for the creation kit alone?

 

Those are the only questions I would like to focus on for right now. baby steps... Anyway, thanks in advance for answers and advice. Also thank you for reading. I understand that this may make some uber experienced modders frustrated but I learn in a really unique way sometimes.

[Fistandilius]

First, understand that you're not the first to do mods of those types. I'm not trying to discourage you, but if you actually want someone to use them you should look at what's there and make sure yours is better than the existing ones, or else more original. However, the best advice is to mod for yourself, not someone else.

 

Second... Did you install Steam to the default Windows Program Files directory? If you did, you're going to want to uninstall it and re-install Steam in it's own directory, either Steam, or Games/Steam, or whatever. You need to get it out of the clutches of Windows UAC control or you're going to have issues with modding.

 

Now, your questions:

 

1. This sounds like the typical lack of dawnguard.esm in your .ini file. If you do a search about dawnguard breaking the creation kit you will find explicit directions.. I think there are even youtube videos on it. But basically you need to edit your SkyrimEditor.ini and add the .esm's from Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn to the master file list. There are two lists in that file and if you don't add to the correct one it won't work. Also, I think there is a line in there that says something about allowing multiple master files that needs to be enabled.

 

2. I have limited experience with this, but spells usually have a certain number of effects that can be edited and the rest are done with scripts. Scripting takes a lot more knowledge to work with. I suggest starting with the creation kit wiki: http://www.creationkit.com/ and supplementing it with some YouTube videos.

 

3. Again, this has to do with scripting. For example, the firebolt spell uses a specific animation. That animation is called by the spell's packages. Whether or not there is an entry you can simply change to another animation or not I have yet to discover since I just haven't learned how scripting works, but it's possible. Someone else can probably better answer, but if you don't get an answer, you need to start with learning how to script.

 

Another thing you should know is that modding animations is limited. Certain things like skeletons and animations can only be used once by the game. IE if you change the skeleton for draugr, it effects every draugr in the game. If you change the animation for drawing the sword, every single NPC that uses this animation will have it changed. So far adding new animations is limited and I'm not sure anyone has figured out how to add new skeletons. There are mods like FNIS that allow you to use extra animations, but then you have to learn how FNIS works as well. If you don't know how these things tie in together, then that's another thing you'll have to learn. Every visual piece in the game is created by a mesh that is wrapped with a texture. Those meshes are rigged to skeletons. The skeletons are animated to allow the meshes to move. These are the bare basics of the system.

Edited December 28, 2013 by Fistandilius

[MagneticN0rth]

First, understand that you're not the first to do mods of those types. I'm not trying to discourage you, but if you actually want someone to use them you should look at what's there and make sure yours is better than the existing ones, or else more original. However, the best advice is to mod for yourself, not someone else

 

 

 

I do understand this. I looked through several mods that have done the things I mention but found that the mods were unbalanced or lacked creative vision for my tastes. As for modding for myself, I feel that if I am going to be sharing and discussing my modding progress I should talk as if others would like to use my mods, but that's not necessarily the case. It may just be a habit. I am most definitely into modding to enhance my personal experience in the game.

 

I also lucked out on the installing steam to a particular folder since I always install game related software to its separate folders on my desktop.

 

1. Thanks for that info I had a hunch that it was a common problem since most tutorials never load the dawnguard files.

 

2/3. Learning new scripting? Ew!... lol! i hate scripting but i guess I'll have to learn it.

 

As far as changing animations. The only animation I have problems with other than the kill cams is the two handed animations. I was thinking about adding a perk to the two-handed tree that allowed you to use two-handers in one hand. To do that I think I would need to change how one-handers swing and possibly how far your character chokes up o the two handed variants. I also considered maybe using the mounted two handed animation and tweaking it slightly. All stuff I plan on keeping in the back of my mind for when I become much better with the modding tools and resources available.

 

Thank you for the information by the way. It's been really helpful!

[Fistandilius]

 

First, understand that you're not the first to do mods of those types. I'm not trying to discourage you, but if you actually want someone to use them you should look at what's there and make sure yours is better than the existing ones, or else more original. However, the best advice is to mod for yourself, not someone else

 

 

 

I do understand this. I looked through several mods that have done the things I mention but found that the mods were unbalanced or lacked creative vision for my tastes. As for modding for myself, I feel that if I am going to be sharing and discussing my modding progress I should talk as if others would like to use my mods, but that's not necessarily the case. It may just be a habit. I am most definitely into modding to enhance my personal experience in the game.

 

I also lucked out on the installing steam to a particular folder since I always install game related software to its separate folders on my desktop.

 

1. Thanks for that info I had a hunch that it was a common problem since most tutorials never load the dawnguard files.

 

2/3. Learning new scripting? Ew!... lol! i hate scripting but i guess I'll have to learn it.

 

As far as changing animations. The only animation I have problems with other than the kill cams is the two handed animations. I was thinking about adding a perk to the two-handed tree that allowed you to use two-handers in one hand. To do that I think I would need to change how one-handers swing and possibly how far your character chokes up o the two handed variants. I also considered maybe using the mounted two handed animation and tweaking it slightly. All stuff I plan on keeping in the back of my mind for when I become much better with the modding tools and resources available.

 

Thank you for the information by the way. It's been really helpful!

 

 

You can change one handed and two handed weapons back and forth with nifskope, so you should be able to create a script to do the same thing in theory, unless Bethesda put some kind of limitations on scripting. Like I said, I don't script. But to do it manually, you want to look here:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/600056-using-two-handed-sword-as-one-handed/?p=5478359&fromsearch=1&do=findComment&comment=5478359

[MagneticN0rth]

More good info! I've been messing around with CK spell making more, but I decided to take a break and compile a to do list for them for now. What I am having problems with now is missing male nif body files in my meshes folder. The female parts are there, but somehow males are missing. I don't understand how that could be since there are males in my game though.

Edited January 1, 2014 by MagneticN0rth