Skyrim MOD in progress

[Ellderon]

I've been modding various games for years, and a few weeks ago I finally decided to mod Skyrim.

 

Unfortunately, being a glutton for self-punishment and not one to think small, most of the mods I make end up being so big and time-consuming that I never finished some of them (oblivion...*sic*). I *LOVE* to mod and play games, but there is only so many hours in a day and work drains me (after 8 hours of staring into the computer screen, the first you want to do when you get home is not stare some more..ok, I lie, it is. But your eyes need rest.).

 

So any help, advice or criticism is appreciated.

 

So I spent time in research and preparation and I have been hard at work and am making decent progress. But there's a lot to do and just creating areas leaves me frustrated because there are pieces that don't fit and my vision comes crashing down.

 

 

What I plan to do in this mod:

- a small keep with an knightly order (similar to Vigilants of Stendar).

- a mansion for the player to aquire (right next to the keep).

- a few quests and a few companions.

 

- lighting in mansion changes depending on time of day ()

 

 

The Mansion:

basement - storage, crafting, possible dungeon or secret passage

main floor - atrium, players study/library, kitchen, bathouse, dining room

upper floor - sleeping quarters for tons of followers, so you can keep your entire gang in da house.

Min of 5 large rooms or 10 smaller ones (not counting the player large room)

 

No load screens, everything neatly ordered and close by. Merchant and smith right outside.

 

Basement and main floor mostly done, upper floor is problematic because I kinda want it to be made of wood and it doesn't mesh well with the Solitude tileset.

 

Will post a screenshot soon, posting this on another PC so I can't add them now.

 

Order Keep - just started on it.

 

Extra areas (for quests) - in progress

 

NPC's - several made (custom apperance) and lots of text for them written. Most are ATM useable in game as followers.

 

 

 

My biggest stumbling block so far is scripting.

Many new houses have all the super-fancy things you can click on and do, but I just want a very usable house first and foremost. Everything else is secondary.

I do need ideas and help with the lighting system. Do I attach a script to each light source/effect that enables/disables the source/effect depending on time of day? Is there a better way to do it?

 

[Ellderon]

And here, a few screenies of the progress:

 

 

top view of the main floor

 

http://s7.postimg.org/i3zl7bw3b/Skyrim_mannor1.jpg

 

 

main floor, part of basement (with all the craftign stations). In the background, the players room and the wooden is the WIP of the follower/servant rooms

 

http://s7.postimg.org/hbsbue2if/Skyrim_mannor2.jpg

 

 

Closeup on the kitchen, bathing room, foyer, stair and the playr study/library

 

http://s7.postimg.org/hsi4ukfnb/Skyrim_mannor3.jpg

 

A few characters I'm wroking on. The CK is acting strangely on my laptop, compared to my PC. Faces are affected, so these are NOT the final appearances

 

http://s7.postimg.org/7fr8uqwqf/Skyrim_OHFnpc.jpg

Edited May 16, 2014 by Ellderon

[Ellderon]

Seriously? A week and not even a single advice of help?

 

I am dissapoint.

 

I'm still making progress b.t.w., but I could bloody well use a hand with:

 

- scripting (script to assign a follower to a bed, script to change internal lighting depending on time of day)

- level design (could use help making a dungeon or two)

[Dhegonus]

Nexus isn't overly great with advice when it comes to scripting, search, in google "skyrim script repository" i think it is the TESV alliance website, but either way, the people there are far more helpful when it comes to mod making and scripting, people here generally just like to moan than offer advice or help.

 

eeither way, marvellous work thus far, well done, you really are a masochist aha :D

Edited May 19, 2014 by Dhegonus

[Matth85]

Nexus isn't overly great with advice when it comes to scripting

 

That's not quite right. It's not that people are not helpful around here, it is that 99,8% of all modders are gone and will not re-surface untill another TES, eventually a new Fallout, title is announced, or even released.

 

people here generally just like to moan than offer advice or help.

 

The "people here" are an average of 5 voice actors, 2 modellers, 1 scripter and 1000 mod users who have no experience about anything.

If you actually find the people who knows stuff, and ask them, you get all the info you want. If you, however, ask in Mod talk, you are generally asking the same 4 modders, and the same 150 mod users, for help.

 

If you got access to the real Modders forum, the one requiting 1000 unique downloads, you can get help from real modders.

But yes, TESAlliance is a solid place for help. I have no love for the people over there, but i will not argue against the modding base over there.

[DrNewcenstein]

That's the vibe I get from this place. All the knowledgeable people that could turn this place into a real community have bailed. Dunno if they're hanging out in a private club with each other or what, but I've seen very few people offering real help. Granted there are links-a-plenty to the tutorials they recommend, but sometimes all someone needs is a fish to get started, not fishing lessons.

 

As for assigning a bed, I'm not sure on this, but I do think that's a built-in function. Select a bed and set the ownership to whichever NPC. Haven't explored that myself, but I do know you can assign ownership in the CK to an NPC of just about anything.

 

At CK.com, there's a script for lights to come on and turn off at a certain time of day, though you may also want to look through the CK and see if those scripts are already there.

[Matth85]

All the knowledgeable people that could turn this place into a real community have bailed. Dunno if they're hanging out in a private club with each other or what, but I've seen very few people offering real help.

 

Nobody has "bailed". It's how thing works. When a game is new, the playerbase is huge, and all the modders return. The best mods are from people who modded Oblivion, and Morrowind before that. Then the game ages, and less people play it. Now it becomes impossible to hit top 100, so the biggest modders go out and do other things. Like working on games, or actually making money of their skills.

Then a new game is released, and they come back.

 

Why would any decent modder mod Skyrim these days? You will not get top 100, and 99% of all the people around have never modded, so they just yell at you and demand more from you.

 

What one needs to do, is to find the people and PM them. For example, in Oblivion I started working on particle effects and animations, as a result of seing Midas beautiful magic effects. But nobody knew anything about particle effects, exporting them or how to make them work inside of Oblivion. Now, I could just cry on the forum, yell at the few people trying to help, or I could search google, and youtube, for people that knew what they did. I then found SaidenStorm, a genious when it came to that sort of things. He told me everything I wanted to know.

 

Point is, most people are willing to help. Most people are also not checking the sub forums. Modders tend to hang out in the modders forum part, where all the mod users are unable to access. Why? because it's generally the same question asked every time around here, and all it takes is checking the wiki for information.