[Anyone want to point me in the right direction?]

For basic modding, all you need is the Construction Set. Make sure you get version 1.2. There are several programs available for making/modifying textures, such as:

 

Photoshop (Requires .dds plugin to open Oblivion's texture file format)

 

GIMP (Free program. Requires .dds plugin to open Oblivion's texture file format)

 

Paint.Net (Free program that can access .dds files from the get-go, no extra plugin needed)

 

You'll also need NifSkope (free program) in order to apply new/alternate textures to meshes.

 

To create your own meshes, you'll need a 3D modeling program such as 3DS Max (rather expensive) or Blender (free).

 

As for where to go to learn how to use all of this stuff, there is no better place than TES Alliance. They have the only actual modding school available and a good number of experts that are very willing to help. It's a great environment for the beginning (or experienced) modder.

 

The Construction Set Wiki is also a good place to go. Though it's not quite as informative as TES Alliance, it does cover a broad range of things.

[Modding a mod, with another mod.]

The easiest way (that I know of) to do this would be to use TES4Gecko or Wrye Bash to turn the Open Cities Reborn.esp into an .esm. Any changes you made could then be saved as a new .esp. The original OCR.esp will still be there if you need to revert back to it.

 

Edit: Ninja'd! :ninja:

[Do I need a specific script, or what?]

That script is a good starting point, but needs a bit of refinement. Try this:

 

scn EnableMyRoomOrSomethingScript

Short DoOnce

Begin OnAdd Player

If DoOnce == 0
 YourRefID.Enable
 Set DoOnce to 1
Endif

End

[Finding the FormID]

Finding the FormID in the CS isn't enough to use it in game. FormIDs from mods generally begin with 01 (02 if the mod relies on another .esm). However, the first two digits actually depend on load order and increase in hex format.

 

For instance, say you want a sword from mod X. You load mod X in the CS and it gives a FrimID of 01015979. Now let's say your load order looks something like:

 

Oblivion.esm

Some Mod Here.esp

Some Other Mod Here.esp

Yet Another Mod Here.esp

Mod X.esp

 

The actual FormID for the desired sword would be 04015979 because Mod X is the fourth file to load after the Oblivion.esm.

 

An easy way to find out what the correct first two digits are is to load your entire load order TES4Edit. The first two digits that each .esp/.esm uses for new objects are listed just to the left the .esp/.esm name, as shown in the highlighted section of the image below:

 

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4119/tes4editformidview.jpg

 

You can also get the full FormID of the desired object from TES4Edit by expanding the + next to the .esp/.esm and expanding the necessary sub-heading(s).

[Resist Fire damage on an ability]

Dark Elves have 75% Resist Fire, so it should do 25 damage each second. Is this true?

Unfortunately, no. Ability type spells bypass resistances, so even a Dark Elf would receive the full effect of a fire damage ability.

[Dark Crusader: Dynamis II]

Wow, that looks good! :thumbsup: I have a character who really wants to get his hands on that.

[TES Construction set crash on start up]

The last time I ran into that problem, it was due to a corrupt .esp in my Oblivion/Data folder. Try moving your new CM plugin to a different folder, then see if the CS starts up.

[Invisible Activators?]

Why not just use one of the default TriggerZone activators? You can scale them up after you place them so they cover the desired area.

[Help Finding a Mod Tool]

Hiya, I've recently come back to modding Oblivion, but I misplaced and/or deleted my Book Writer tool. Would anyone be willing to give me a link to a good one? If so, thank you!

If I get the Book Writer i'm going to make a mod about the Lore of a civilization, the Arthranians. Just some Lore and a few of their species here and there.

Would the tool you seek happen to be Critterman's Oblivion Book Creator?

[Help!!!!!!!]

so whats the difference between human blood and a blood potion?

Midas Magic requires items native to the Midas Magic mod. The scripts necessary to create the new Midas Magic spells cannot recognize (or be set to recognize) items from any other mod.

[Guildmaster Chest Leveled List?]

If i go and tweak the 10 x GetRandomPercent to 30-40 * GetRandomPercent. Would that fix the everlasting underpayment of the Guild masters?

That would get you 3 or 4 time the amount of gold you get in vanilla. You can also add one of the leveled gold lists to the FGMasterChestLoot list for a chance to get even more (key word there is 'chance' since only one object from the list will be added).

[Oblivion Gate Mods...]

Here's some more:

Sigil Stone Selector - Lets you select what sigil stone type you get.

Oblivion Gate Closer Spell - Cast a spell at an Oblivion gate to close it and get a sigil stone.

[Guildmaster Chest Leveled List?]

Can't seem to find the Leveled item list which grants the player currency each month after becoming the Master. Anyone ever located it? :psyduck:

The monthly gold is actually granted through a quest script (specifically, FGPostQuest) instead of a leveled list.

[How to change texture tone?]

Aw, yeah! It works! It ALL WORKS! :D Plus paint.NET is so damn easy to use I can even add my own stuff and not just edit things! Woot! :teehee:

 

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. :yes:

 

 

Time to do some serious textures. :pirate:

If you're making textures (or re-textures) for races, creatures (or anything, really), you'll need to create NormalMaps of them as well.

 

NormalMaps share the same name as the main textures they're paired with, but end with _n. I'll use the Glass Cuirass as an example.

 

The texture that appears in game is cuirass.dds and it's normalmap is cuirass_n.dds. If you change the color of the main texture to blue and save it as cuirassBlue.dds, you'll need to create a normalmap called cuirassBlue_n.dds for it to work.

 

There is a way to get your new texture to use the same normalmap as the original (and eliminate the need to create a new normalmap). Save your new texture with the same name as the original, but with a description placed after _. I'll use the glass cuirass re-texture from above as a better example.

 

Instead of saving the blue re-texture as cuirassBlue.dds, save it as cuirass_Blue.dds. As long as the new texture (in this case, cuirass_blue.dds) is saved in this manner to the same folder as the old one, the new texture will use the same normalmap (and glowmap, if applicable) as the original.

[Changing textures in nifskope wont work.]

You're welcome. :biggrin: Glad I could help.

[Changing textures in nifskope wont work.]

The "invisibility" issue is usually caused by a missing Normal Map. Whenever I change the color of an existing texture, I save the new texture in the same folder as the original and put a small description after a _ so it will use the same Normal Map as the original. A good example would be the Glass Cuirass texture (cuirass.dds). If I change the color from green to blue, I save the new texture as cuirass_Blue.dds. It will then use the Normal Map texture (cuirass_n.dds) of the vanilla Glass Cuirass.

 

If you want to save it in a different location, you'll have to create a new Normal Map or copy the original and rename it to match the name of your texture (TextureName_n.dds).

[Own Magic Effect]

Hi, I just wanted to ask if you are able to create your own magic effect. I'm not talking about own spells, but whole a new category of magic, so does not depend on the other effects such as fire damage for example.

It should be an own category you can define and choose in the CS.

Hope you got what I wanted to say.

You can actually create new magic effects with the Oblivion Magic Extender. It requires OBSE in order to work, though.

[Alternate scripted healing spells.]

You can create an ability spell that restores x amount of health per second. Then create a scripted spell (and select Damage Health for visual effects) that adds the spell to you, then removes it after a set duration. the script for the spell would look something like:

 

scn ScriptedHealingSpellScript

Begin ScriptEffectStart

Player.AddSpell SpellEditorID

End

Begin ScriptEffectFinish

Player.RemoveSpell SpellEditorID

End

 

Just make sure you set the spell's duration to at least 1 second.

[Mods true to the game world?]

In other words, you want "lore friendly" mods. There are quite a lot of them and listing them would take...well, it would probably crash the forums. :P If you could narrow it down a bit, that would help us point you in the right direction(s). :thumbsup:

 

What sort of mods are you looking for?

[Bow Script]

I've had this idea in my head for a while now. I want to be able to equip my bow with a script attached to it that will equip a stack of specified ammo when I equip the bow. I've tried writing a few of my own scripts but the equipitem function only equips a maximum of one item from a stack. I was wondering if maybe I am using the function incorrectly (I'm relatively new at writing a script from scratch) or if there is another function I could use for the desired effect.

I actually had the same idea some time ago. I had the same issue, too. The problem withe the EquipItem command is that it will only equip 1 item from a stack no matter how you word it, which makes it (almost) useless for arrows. To work around it you can remove all but one arrow before equipping and adding them back afterwards, which will equip the others - but that will not make the quiver on the back in 3rd person mode update correctly.

The script for that looks something like:

 

scn MyBowScript

short ArrowCount

Begin OnEquip Player
Set ArrowCount to player.GetItemCount ArrowID - 1
Player.RemoveItem ArrowID ArrowCount
Player.EquipItem ArrowID
Player.AddItem ArrowID ArrowCount
End

That may not be the exact wording needed for this (it's been a while since I did this), but it should at least point you in the right direction.

 

You might also want to check out Enhanced Hotkeys. One of the features is that it has a special Bow+Arrows hotkey item that, when used, equips a bow + arrows.

[Is it possible to make a mod that removes a creature?]

You would have to go right-click the slaughterfish entry in the CS and select the "use info". Then delete the slaughterfish entry from all leveled lists that contain it, and also delete or disable any instances of them that are placed in the interior or exterior maps.

This. That's exactly how I made the No Spider Daedra mod, which was requested for a similar reason (arachnophobia). It took about five minutes.

[mesh transparency problem]

Thanks for the reply. I've just solved it.

 

Stupid problem with the normal map, yes. The names of my textures were, something like this:

armor_my.dds

armor_my_n.dds

Yep, that will cause a problem. Any thing that immediately follows the "_" in a texture name is considered an alternate texture unless it starts with "g" (glow map) or "n" (normal map). This does have a benefit, though: If you make multiple colors for one mesh, you can make them use the same normal map (and glow map, if applicable) like this:

 

TextureName.dds <---the original texture.

TextureName_g.dds <---the glow map (if it has one)

TextureName_n.dds <---the normal map

TextureName_blue.dds <---a blue variant that will use the above normal and glow maps

TextureName_red.dds <---a red variant that will use the above normal and glow maps

 

You can add any number of variations that way and use the same normal and glow maps.

[Creatures and City Doors]

Increase your creature's intelligence. I can't remember off hand how high it needs to be in order to open doors, so you may need to experiment a bit.

[[RELz] Oblivion Gate Closer Spell]

Okay, time to release an update! This update fixes some problems in the original version, such as:

 

The new Mythic Dawn agents will attack the Daedra in V1. Fixed in V2.

The weather has a tendency to get stuck on the Oblivion sky in V1. Fixed in V2.

If you cast V1 of this spell on the remains of a gate, it will "close" it again. Fixed in V2.

 

What's not fixed:

Some users have reported an inability to close certain gates (the Kvatch gate has been mentioned) with V1 of this spell. So far, I've been unable to duplicate the problem, so I have no idea what causes it.

[Recommend Me Some Stealth Gameplay Improving Mods]

You might be interested in my Stealth Armors mod: The armors give you 15-75% chameleon depending on your Sneak skill. There's also this one that gives 100% chameleon when sneaking.