Banana125

Thanks for that link--I'll check it out! It looks like it could be very helpful Don't worry, I wasn't planning to put up my own version of OBIS, heh. I was citing your mod as an example of of one that already has added a lot of new characters to the leveled lists, which could in theory be individually renamed in the CK rather than doing random name generation. I was imagining this being a much smaller project, where the vanilla bandit system is left unchanged except for randomly generated names (and, I suppose, you could easily extend this to other NPCs like guards, if desired). I've gone ahead and started pulling names from the UESP name lists, and I'm going to use this as an excuse to get a bit more experience playing around with Python for the analysis and implementation. My first instinct is to use some sort of Markov-chain like thing, where the most recent syllable determines the probabilities of what the next one will be. But we'll see how tricky that ends up being. I'll be sure to let you know if I get this working. If I do, you'd be more than welcome to implement it in OBIS if you wish! :smile:

So this has bothered me a bit ever since Oblivion, and I don't recall finding anything to address it, even after a brief search through the forums and the Googles. Every bandit is just named "Bandit," every marauder "Marauder," etc etc. I had the idea for a mod to randomly generate real names for these otherwise generic characters. I'm aware of Organized Bandits in Skyrim, which seems to deal with a lot of the issues with the generic nature of bandits. However, it looks like it mostly does visual and mechanic differentiations--which is awesome--but it looks like most NPCs (the randomly generated ones) are still vexed by generic names (I haven't used it, but I'm about to to check it out). So, my thought: why not giv every bandit a name? I would like, ideally, to have randomly generated names, but that would require either a pretty substantial analysis of the existing names for each race to determine broad rules for name formation (to my knowledge, there isn't a canonical guide of "this is how you make an Orc name," etc). This would allow for minimum probability of the player ever seeing the same character name twice, especially if you allow variation for one versus two names. But this is a lot of work that requires a lot of trial and error to make sure your name generating code (I assume this would have to be coded/scripted) runs as intended. The other option would be to generate names randomly from a list. In the most basic form, you could have a list of different possible first and last names and randomly select a first name, then possibly a last name to go with it. In a more complicated form, you could do the same thing but on a syllable level--have rules on what syllables can follow others and construct a name from there, but again, this would require a good bit of trial and error to make sure that the names you generate all sound reasonable. While I would want to procedurally generate bandit names (e.g., they spawn in and get a randomized name on spawn), it might be a lot easier to take, say, Organized Bandits in Skyrim and basically batch rename all of the new bandits it adds to the leveled lists. This allows for less variation in the names and is rather more tedious (though I can always write a macro to automate name entry), but better guarantees that all the names you pick sound good since you're removing the procedural random variation of them. So: any thoughts on how to go about this, aside from that last option? I would probably have a lot of fun trying to generate rules for name formation, and writing some code to do that, but I don't know how to implement it into the game--I've barely done any real modding, and exactly zero scripting, but I can learn to script (in theory). Also, is there some mod that already does just this?

Er, I meant those examples to be multiplicative--i.e., you get (1/3n)*(base experience). Rather than (base experience) - (1/3n). In which case, iron daggers would be dropping faster. But, whatever, just wording. The general gist seems to have been gotten across. I'll definitely look into those few effects, see if I can make anything reasonable. I'd thought about just increasing the experience required between levels, which would definitely do the trick, but then I'd probably have to go through and hand-edit every item to add various tags/keyword to increase their experience without jacking their values way up. It could be done, but I'd rather change as few things as possible. Thanks for pointing those out. Glanzer--I'd been peripherally aware of Elys Uncapper, but I'll give it a look. If it does what I'm thinking of (or something close), I'll just grab that rather than trying to figure it out myself. Thanks!

So I have an idea for a mod, but I'm not sure A) if it already exists, or B) where in the CK I would go to begin making something like this, if it doesn't exist (I've never really used the CK for changing mechanics--just placing items, making interior cells, etc). Smithing leveling has always seemed a bit weird to me--iron daggers are a viable smithing option at level 90, for instance. Lately I've been thinking about making a mod to change this, making the experience you get drop off with each additional level or each additional item you make of that kind. E.G.--you start out making iron daggers. Your first one nets you the normal 38.4 experience. Your next one nets you, say, 38 experience, then 37.5, etc etc; the point being, you can only get so far to being a master smith by making the same, super basic/low-level item over and over again. Ideally, this dropoff would only start after you're at/a bit past the level for the next materials tier. A more ideal system would be one that decreases your experience based on the number and type of item. So maybe making an iron dagger makes your experience drop off as 1/(3n), where n is how many you've made. Meanwhile, it makes experience for all other iron weapons drop of as 1/(2n), and all other iron items as (1/n), and a similar dropoff for tempering items. That particular rate would just be awful, granted, but it serves to illustrate the idea I'm trying to get at. This should, naturally, reset after you reset your skill level somehow. So--is there already a mod like this? If not, where would I go in the CK to start making one like this? I don't think it would be sufficient just to change the experience gain multiplier, since that would just make the whole skill slower; the point would be, basically, diminishing returns on making the same item over and over.

Yeah, I do have some follower mods (probably should have mentioned that). Marriage Dynamic Outfits (Aela is also my spouse on that save), specifically. I'll toy with that and see if I can use that (or perhaps disable, load, save, re-enable) to fix this little nuisance. Thanks.

So I have Aela the Hunress as a follower. As I'm running around leveling up, I keep finding/smithing bits of armor for her to use. I have the Unofficial Skyrim Patch, so her class has been switched to use heavy armor (since her default armor is heavy armor, but her class uses light armor in vanilla). I also use her to carry stuff when I reach my encumbrance limit. So I make some dwarven armor and give her a full set. No biggie, she wears it, all is well. Then, journeying around Solstheim, I find soem carved nord armor I want to haul back to Raven Rock to sell, so I give it to her. She equips the cuirass and helm. No biggie so far. But then I make her a full set of ebony once my smithing skill is high enough/I have enough ingots. I give her the full ebony set. This is where things start getting weird. Every so often, at regular intervals (haven't found what the interval is yet), her inventory magically spawns a pair of swarven boots, dwarven gauntlets, and some carved nordic armor. Which she then invariably equips, despite the ebony gear being legendary and oh so much better. I remove the dwarven/carved nordic stuff from her inventory and she goes back to using the ebony armor. Until it happens again not to long afterwards. She just keeps spawning these same three items--dwarven boots, dwarven gauntlets, carved nordic armor--and equipping them. I take them away from her, she magically acquires new ones out of thin air some time later. I've tried using the console to remove them from her inventory. Doesn't work--she re-equips them later. I've tried using the resetinventory command. Nada. I've tried disabling and enabling her. Nothing. Is there something going on here that can be fixed? This is getting really annoying.

Thanks, to both of you!

I have a dungeon mod I'm just about finished with- I need to place some baddies and do a few playtests and then I'll be done- but somehow, it half my .esm files (CM Companions, a few race ones) have gotten attached, despite me not adding a single thing from them to my mod. Pulling up TES4Edit, it seems that everything from CM Companions got automatically included, ditto for the three race .esm files. Would just manually deleting the filed from the .esp clean it up and remove the .esm dependency, or would that delete them from the game too, as long as the .esp were loaded? Is there an easier way to do cleanup that I don't know about (I don't know my way around things like TES4Edit or TES4Gecko very well, I have to say)? And how could I stop these mods from automatically adding themselves to things in the future? EDIT: Actually, nevermind, I forgot that way at the beginning of the mod I had thought I was gonna use those race files so I added them. But still, is there a way to remove .esm dependency when I've used nothing from the particular .esm in the mod itself? Or would those .esms just not have to be loaded for the mod mod to run?

Shadowfen, you are my new favorite person. Have a kudo. I would give you a box full of them if I could.

With the size of my data folder (I'm running about 130 mods right now and have files I forgot to delete from older ones I uninstalled the .esp for) it would be easier to pull each file out individually :P Well maybe someone else knows a program or trick or something. WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING kinda similar- open the CS, file->data, find the mod, click "details". Gives you a full list of everything in the mod that's been used, including items. Unfortunately, it's just editor names, and if like me you use a prefix for all created items (I'm using 000 for this dungeon), you can just look in the CS itself under "model" and "icon" and so on. But man that's still gonna take a while. ah well, better than nothing and I don't have too terribly many things I've imported- and I'm pretty sure I've nothing more to import at the moment- but I've gotta do meshes, textures, and icon files. Ugh. Ah well, I'll get started tomorrow.

Hm...not what I was asking, but that is a helpful tip. I guess I should clarify, since re-reading that it is rather...murky. I'm working on a dungeon mod where the boss characters have armor equipped from several different mods other than my own. When I'm finished, if I get permission from the one or two people I haven't had a reply from yet, I intend to upload my dungeon. Only problem is that the few things I've used are from rather large mods (some weapons and a few armor pieces from Apachii Goddess Store, Apachii Heroes Store, and a few other bits and pieces) so I don't want to have to tell people "download a few hundred megs to play this dungeon." I'd rather be able to do what most mods do- have the archive uploaded that contains the .esp and the meshes and textures folders that contain all the necessary meshes/textures for the mod to function properly. With the things I've been importing, I've been trying to keep track and manually make a copy of the necessary files and folder structures (i.e. the whole meshes\armor\apachii\etc bit, with the .nif file(s) in whatever folders they were initially in). Since I have to do this with both textures, icons, and meshes, it's getting to be a bit of a headache. I'm wondering if there's any program out there or trick in the CS where I can either A) see a full list of files and their locations (meshes/textures being the only relevant ones for me) used in the mod that aren't from vanilla Oblivion, and/or B) have the files copied to a separate location, within their proper folder hierarchies, so I can archive it and upload. E.G., move, say, the BastBlackLeather.nif file from C:\\Program Files (x86)\bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\apachii\suits\BastBlackLeather.nif to maybe Desktop\My Dungeon, and in the My dungeon folder create the whole meshes\etc folder hierarchy, and do so for each file. So I guess in other words, basically I'm looking for something that can help me either identify or can copy to a separate location for me the files (meshes/textures) needed to run the mod. Hopefully that makes a bit more sense. I'm kind of tired from the past week so I might not be articulating as clearly as I could.

I'm working on a dungeon mod that uses items from many other mods, and thus have had to import them via the CS; however, I always fear that I missed something. Is there a way/tool I can use to automatically detect the .nif/.dds files used that aren't from the Oblivion.bsa file, and ideally package them in the respective folder structure (i.e. just A.nif instead of A.nif, B.nif, and C.nif from textures/clothing/letters, but make a copy of the textures/clothing/letters file with just A.nif, if that makes sense)? Something that can tell me what I've used would be ideal, packing it up for me in a ready-to-archive-for-uploading way even better but not necessary. Does such a wonderful tool exist, or will I just have to keep track of it all by hand?

Only thing I can think of is a while back when I tried to place some CM NPCs into a mod-generated interior cell which screwed it up. If you're opening two mods at once and moving an item created in Mod A (let's say a new sword) into a cell created by Mod B, the sword, chances are, won't show up (or so has been my experience) in the cell when you load the game. Here's what I'd recommend: Make sure you've only got the mod you're working with open, plus any master files other than Oblivion.esm that it needs to run (to make it easier to see what's going o in your mod and not others). If you're trying to attach a script to an object from another mod for use in yours, go ahead and open the other one too but set yours as the active (very important step here). Now for your script: make sure, with your mod as the active file, you save it. Double-check to make sure it saved right. If you're using an item from another mod, check the location of its mesh file (.nif extension); use that to create a new item of identical properties within your mod. If you're trying to use an item from a .esm file, try making a duplicate of it (right click, edit, change the ID, and say Yes to the create new form box) first. Then, whichever way you did it, re-attach the script. I can't say any more than that; I dunno if you've already tried this (sorry if so), but that's just a basic troubleshooter from my own experience that can be easy to miss.

Ah! Thank you so much! :D Edit: Script works like a charm, but for some reason I had to modify it to "EffectStone" instead of "StoneEffect" (didn't work as StoneEffect, so I checked the Midas Magic mod's nuke script where it was listed as EffectStone) and remove "to" from the fourth line. But that being done it's perfect, thanks! Edit2: Hm...can't seem to figure out quite how to make a character un-talk-to-able, a la the Bruma statue. The setisghost command works great, but how would I make it so they are effectively a static actor whom I can't interact with at all, in any way? Edit3: Using a dummy activate script ("begin onactivate / end") makes them un talk-toable and then I can just use the console in-game to disable AI. Woohoo!

Whoops, ignore the double-post.