Looking for weapon creation tutorials.

[DueyDecibel]

I'd like to know if anyone would be willing to point me in the right direction for learning how to create completely custom weapons and put them into fallout 4. What I'm really wanting to do is to essentially retexture some of the weapons in The Gun Runner's Arsenal from Fallout New Vegas and add them to FO4. (Let's face it, FNV's weapons beat the hell out of all of F04's in practically every conceivable aspect.)

 

I want to take the hunting shotgun and the assault carbine and port them into FO4, fully functioning with all their mods and sound effects, along with updated textures. Depending upon how well my mods turn out and what the response on the nexus is, it's possible that I would recreate the entire Gun Runners Arsenal.

 

I've downloaded NifSkope, as I heard I'll need that. If there are any other tools that I'll need in order to learn how to create great mods, I'd very much appreciate any advice anyone with modding experience can give me or point me to, as I've not been able to find much on the Creation Kit's functions on Youtube or the internet in general.

[Predence00]

I use the CK to do most of the work adding items and whatnot. I'd recommend getting FO4Edit so you can clean your mod of any dirty edits or reverse any changes you may have not wanted to make. You'll need NifSkope to edit the meshes so the mods attach to the right points, though I haven't done much mesh editing to know how. Also I'd recommend using one of the various FOMOD creation tools if you plan on doing one, it ends up saving quite a bit of time.

 

For advice:

1. Try to edit as few vanilla records as possible when adding new items. Specifically, adding to dn_CommonGun should be avoided and you should instead make a new naming instance if you want to add anything. If you use only vanilla keywords and are happy with that just use it as is. Editing it make is partially incompatible with other mods like Valdacil's sorting, they both work just the naming feature of Valdacil's won't work if you override it with you own mod.

2. Name you new records consistently makes them easier to find and much more organized. I ussually go for a: {modname_recordtype_name} style I.e. (MyMod_ConstructableObject_Fishystick01).

3a. For the weapon object itself make sure to put down the right keywords and make a new mod association keyword (selectable in drop down when making a new keyword) for just that weapon so your object mods apply only to that weapon.

3b. For object mods (weapon and armor upgrades in-game) make sure to have the right attach point and the right mod association keyword (the one you made above). Also add keywords as needed for desired naming (I'd loo in the dn_CommonGun for what keywords add what bit to the name or define the yourself in your own naming instance. Also when modifying damage (and other variables) use the mul+add function rather than the add so it uses your base weapon's stats correctly; Set can be used if you want some thing to stay at one value such as the ammo count.

4. I know this may seem obvious but test thoroughly. Test everything added, on creatures and walls, just to be sure it is working as intended.

 

Useful links:

Naming Instances: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/161/?

Making Weapon in Ck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f_suBDqYLg

For CK basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sles9_D5_-g

 

Hope this helped.

[KaelVirum]

I want to take the hunting shotgun and the assault carbine and port them into FO4, fully functioning with all their mods and sound effects, along with updated textures.

Porting is generally considered a no-no since you're taking assets from one game and putting them into a completely different game. Even though Bethesda owns both games there's still copyright issues to take into account. But as long as this is for personal use I can't really say much.

[Predence00]

I assumed he was going to have to make his own models since old game models aren't compatible with this one right because of the attach points.

[KaelVirum]

True, I didn't think about that. I will begone from here now.

[DueyDecibel]

I sincerely appreciate the thorough responses and advice. This information certainly will help tremendously. Thanks for the links too, I'll likely be referring back to this page to jot down these noteworthy points. If this is the kind of help I can expect from nexus members, learning to mod is going to go a lot smoother than I thought it would. Thanks again to the both of you. I'm sure I'll have more questions about modding in the future.

[Predence00]

It's no problem. For papyrus stuff Skyrim's Ck wiki and tutorials still help tremendously.

[orangedeal]

3b. For object mods (weapon and armor upgrades in-game) make sure to have the right attach point and the right mod association keyword (the one you made above). Also add keywords as needed for desired naming (I'd loo in the dn_CommonGun for what keywords add what bit to the name or define the yourself in your own naming instance. Also when modifying damage (and other variables) use the mul+add function rather than the add so it uses your base weapon's stats correctly

 

Why MUL+ADD? With this setting, the percentages of the initial weapon/armor specification will be used. With ADD setting, raw values will be added/removed. At least, it is worth doing for such characteristics as attack power (specify the desired number of HP), price ($) and weight (pounds). For other characteristics, such as recoil, aim stability and more, you can use MUL+ADD. I think it's more convenient, in case of complete revision of all characteristics.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Edited July 12, 2017 by orangedeal