NellSpeed
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Posts posted by NellSpeed
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Glad to hear it's working finally-- congratulations!
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Just checking in to see how you're doing with this. I have a feeling the solution is fairly straightforward, and we're all just missing something.
Also, this sounds like a very interesting idea you're working on- good luck to you!
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Mondstein and I each released a male romance companion in the same week!
Mondstein: Dairanath Avari - male romance companion.
My companion: CM Valtierro.
And of course, there's Emma's wonderful Vilja.
All three companions also have friendship-only options, for those who just want someone to hang out with.
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You calling me Sergio the Slow :D ?!
Ha! No, no. There are unlimited ways for modders & players to kill themselves in-game...
If I remove it, it works like expected (I don't poison myself). With the script effect added, it kills me quite badly :blink:
Odd huh :blink:
Very, very odd, but at least it's a starting point for fixing it! I've never tried to mod poisons in any way, but interestingly, the CS entry on Potions says
Poison?: This display-only field reads "yes" if all the magic effects are negative. Poisons can be applied to weapons.Maybe the script effect being added to it confuses the engine...?
Seriously, the CS is WEIRD.
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After I applied the script effect to my poison, instead of asking me if I want to poison my weapon, it just poisoned me. I died.
Any ideas how to handle a poison....?
I... that is both deeply weird and kind of awesome-- like a twist in a murder-mystery quest. Who killed Sergio the Slightly Slow?
Nobody! He poisoned himself!
On a more practical note-- did you create it from scratch? Or copy an existing poison? If you remove the script effect, do you still poison yourself?
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The alphanumerical won't work-- not for custom items. What you want is the reference editor ID. I haven't got the CS in front of me, but the CS will help with this.
What you'll need to be doing is to find where the BoH is physically located-- you can find that under Activators > Containers. Go there, open up the properties tab from the cell, and you should see the RefID: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Image:Tut_img_10.jpg
The RefID is what you'll use to identify the container. So you'd have something like this in your script:
NPCReferenceEditorID.removeallitems ContainerReferenceID
Hope this makes a bit more sense.
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In theory, what you could try is something the CS Wiki suggests: RemoveAllItems TargetContainerID
What that means is, all the items are put into a container, rather than simply destroyed. You'd have to also create a permanent container for the items to be put into-- I'm afraid I've got no idea how you'd put them straight into your inventory-- and you'd need to work out how to specify that a specific NPC's items are the ones you want (GetSelf?).
I'm sorry I can't be of more concrete help, but I'm pretty sure this CAN be done!
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To be more specific; I'm looking for the code (menumode ####) for the "Would you like to poison your ***?" menu...
If you know the exact text that appears when the menu appears, you can search the CS to find what script it's attached to. But when you say
I want to be able to check if I used them.if that's really all you want to do, I THINK you could just add a script effect instead of (or in addition to) the actual potion's effect. You might use a variable, setstage, or something like that, to confirm that your potion has been used. It might take a bit of tweaking, but it should work reasonably efficiently.
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I based my Very First Companion on CM Partners. For my second, I'm writing it from scratch-- scripting included-- and could really use some help from someone who actually knows what they're doing. I am NOT asking anyone to do the work for me, however! I've managed to put together scripts by reading & re-reading tutorials & the CS wiki, and by looking at how other modders have approached various functions, and I do feel as if I learned quite a bit from the scripts I've hammered together for other mods I've released.
However, I've run into a big problem: I don't have enough experience to tell when a bug is being caused by another mod in my beta-testers' games (resulting in bugs that I can't seem to duplicate), or if it's just bad work on my part. I suspect that I know just enough to put things together, but not quite enough to weed out the multiple places I could be going wrong. The two big problems seem to be:
- The dreaded double-face bug. I've based my approach on the UOP, but for whatever reasons, it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I have a feeling that by trying to plan for every eventuality (fast-travel, which seems to cause the most problems; regular transitions; summoning) I've actually goofed things up.
- The current approach: Create a spell that should fix the double-face, and have the NPC cast it in transition. This does not seem to work regularly.
- One possible solution: Leave it alone, and let downloaders know if they haven't got the UOP, they may want to start using it.
[*]The inventory. Oh, god, the inventory. It seems to work sometimes, if it feels like it. But not always. And sometimes, it seems to aggravate the double-face / double-body / double-whatever problem. I'm reasonably sure that this IS a problem with my scripting.
- The current approach: Create a spell that should fix the double-face, and have the NPC cast it in transition. This does not seem to work regularly.
If anyone with some scripting chops would be willing to check out my esp-- it's bare-bones at the moment, only 14K-- and help me figure how where-- and more importantly, WHY-- I'm going wrong, I'd really appreciate it. I've made a point of commenting my scripts thoroughly, so it should be fairly obvious what I'm trying to do, and why I wrote the script the way I wrote it. (I haven't posted my scripts here because they do require correct use of reference IDs, and maybe have other issues dependent on context.)
Thanks for your time!
- The dreaded double-face bug. I've based my approach on the UOP, but for whatever reasons, it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I have a feeling that by trying to plan for every eventuality (fast-travel, which seems to cause the most problems; regular transitions; summoning) I've actually goofed things up.
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Oh, that's definitely that's the kind of project that could keep you occupied for a few years at least, what with getting the images, cropping & adjusting, and putting them into the right format. :D But there are a couple of graphics-based books on the Nexus already that may help you see how it's supposed to work, and the CS Wiki has a tutorial on making books with graphics only! http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/How_to_make_a_book_with_pictures_only
Good luck to you.
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It's a really neat idea, but it would also count as copyright infringement-- unless you personally wrote, drew & published and had the legal right to distribute all the doujinshi that would be used in the project-- and would result in an immediate ban from the site.
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Creative questions aside, the technicalities are... time and space consuming.
The way the CS handles dialogue, each and every single line needs to have MP3s and lipfiles done separately, and unless you edit the CS .ini file, there's a limit of 150 characters per line of dialogue.
Vilja's creator Emma assigned her files-- something like 5000 lines!-- manually, and IIRC, she had to use a user-made utility AND an old version of the CS!
I went the easy route & used TES4Gecko to generate silent MP3s and lipfiles for my companion mod. I only did about 650 out of 800 lines to save space, and STILL ended up with a 40MB optional file. However, I also had concerns about finding a VA who fits the idea of the character, who had time to work on the project, AND who would suit the audience; as we've seen on these forums over and over, even professional actors often don't "fit" people's expectations.
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Very welcome-- and best of luck with your modding!
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Version 1:
Derpaherp I hate you
GetFactionRank >= 3 AND
OTGetGold >= 100 AND
Version 2:
Later pal!
GetFactionRank >=3 AND
OTGetFactionRank >=3 AND
OTGetGold >= 100
So, when the conditions for both are met, which does it choose?
Version 1 should show. As far as I've ever been able to tell, the game works from the top down, and will choose the first option with all criteria met (sort of the way that expressions are evaluated)... unless "random" is checked for both versions, in which case it just decides one-- well, randomly.
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Let's face it-- if you're a professional assassin, the retirement package probably isn't that awesome. It'd only be reasonable to have a contingency package in place. For full immersion, I suppose you could put a potion bottle in her inventory-- unusable, labeled "False Death" or something like that; and if the PC brings it into his/her inventory, a conversation option pops up to ask what it is. What it is, Miss A.M. would explain, "is a little, teeny, tiny sip of cleverness! It makes your breathing almost completely stop, and it makes your heart slow down so much that, even if you're rather badly wounded, it's much less likely that you'll bleed to death. And then-- and you're going to LOVE this!-- and then, it slowly lets you heal. Mind you, if whoever killed me had had the sense to burn my body, it wouldn't have helped one little bit, but as it is... here I am!"
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This would be really, really easy to do with CM Partners. Add a line to the join dialogue to explain what happened, something like "You didn't really think you'd killed me, did you? You did! Oh, how sweet!" Then activate the mod AFTER the Purification, and you're set.
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Rule of thumb: If you can already do it in the vanilla game, you can do it in a mod. The trick is figuring out how they did it in vanilla!
Voice acting: I use TESGecko's silent voice generator option, since I don't do voice acting. Keep in mind that sound files (even silent) will expand your filesize, which may or may not be an issue. As far as I can tell, you need to manually assign a voice file, and a lip file, for each and every line of dialogue. This obviously isn't impossible (and cs.elderscrolls.com explains how it works), but it's hugely time-consuming.
Improvements - What you're describing sounds like a combination of house upgrades (buying X item gives you Y results in your in-game house) and using variables and maybe factions and / or quest stages to affect what an NPC does. For your mage, I think it might work like this:
magealchemy == 0 ; He has base equipment & can only make basic potions.
magealchemy == 1 ; He has journeyman equipment.
magealchemy == 2 ; He has master equipment.
The variable is set based on what equipment you've managed to get for him; and it's called by dialogue.:
event: Getting the equipment, then ->
script: checks to see if you have the equipment. If yes, then ->
Journal entry: I've acquired better equipment for my mage!
result script: set magealchemy to 1
Mage dialogue opening: What can I do for you?
PC question: Can you make some potions for me?
if magealchemy == 0, then
Mage dialogue: Sure-- but I can't do much with this equipment. Sorry!
if magealchemy == 1, then
Mage dialogue: Of course! I've got slightly better equipment, so I can do (XYZ), but if I had something better....
if magealchemy == 2, then
Mage dialogue: Absolutely-- I have the best equipment available, so I can make you the best potions you can imagine!
NOTE: That's not an actual script, obviously-- just a very, very, VERY Rough example.
But you can maybe see why big projects take a LOT of time and committment. Nothing in that example includes placement of objects & NPCs, creation of cells, or even just the writing.
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Really hard-- but certainly not impossible, especially if you work with vanilla content instead of trying to implement all kinds of custom content. What you might want to do is consider putting together sort of a proof of concept-- pick one very small quest, maybe just your prologue:
As the player goes to investigate, they would find a relatively modest cave perhaps filled with a few rats or such. However, as they explore deeper the player would stumble upon the skeletal corpses of perhaps four or five unfortunate men. As they investigate, they suddenly spot a ghostly dunmer in the room with the skeletons! Instead of attacking though, the ghost approaches the player and begins to speak with them.
This requires 1 NPC, 1 location, 1 edit of an exterior cell (entry point for your cave), a few minor combat possibilities, and speech options. Ta-da! You've got a stand-alone quest to start with (a story arc, maybe a minor reward of some kind), something to whet people's interest, and-- most importantly-- the proof that you can do the work to support your idea.
Mind you, ideas are awesome, but you have to be able to put some work behind it. Just read through this forum for the dozens of idea posts people make... then compare that to the number of actual mods that get done. Too many people post something like "I've got this awesome idea but I don't know how to mod, so I need someone to make the world and do the scripting and create new armor and and and and." Modders learn by modding, not by getting others to do it for them... and, well, most people who do their own mods want to tell their own stories, not someone else's.
Whew, okay, almost done with the wall of text, here. FWIW, I think you have a genuinely interesting idea, especially since it's not some giant epic adventure, but more a workaday world series of quests. Very well considered of you.
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You may also want to think about what character types you like best: if you play mostly a rogue and rely on stealth, you may want to look for different mods than if you prefer hack-and-slash warriors or wrath-of-the-gods mages.
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Twilight Assassin? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16745
Black Templar? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20953
Sister of Eisen (maybe a bit too much skin) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25389
Exnem (has skin-showing and concealing options) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26020
Ninpo http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33179
Rose of the Guard? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34611
Holy Protector? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21074
Ruby Rose (skin & no-skin options) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26798
I don't know off the top of my head which are and aren't heavy or light, but you can change that kind of thing in the CS. (And I'm pretty sure these are all HGEC-based; that was the keyword I used for a title search).
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I think it helps to be "unconquerable" or "conquerable, but at a high cost" -- either to the PC, or to the world around them. Knights of the Nine played with this at one point-- not in a horror context-- and I thought it was an interesting approach.
Let's say, for instance, that you've got your ghosts pushing their way into the living world for whatever reasons (maybe the Oblivion gates made it easier for things to get through, maybe someone was Tampering in God's Domain, maybe it never gets explained, etc etc etc). Let's say that at first, they're content to just sort of drift around, making people a little tense, but doing absolutely nothing. Then they start watching people-- you're asleep in a rented room, and wake up at 3am to find a ghost just standing there, watching you. Then they start getting aggressive. And people start dying.
You're a hero (or maybe you just want the money or the fame or to figure out how to control them for your own gain), so of course you charge to the rescue... but in the end, the only way to permanently get rid of them-- and if you don't, things will only get worse, and worse, and worse-- is to take on a permanent penalty of some kind that will follow your PC around forever (or as long as the mod is active, I suppose)-- a wound that will never, ever heal, a permanent weakness to the undead.
This gives us a "conquerable-- but not really" or "at a cost" that might give the mod a sense of genuine urgency and risk.
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I think the first thing to do would be to try and determine what factors actually make for horror-- not just jump scares (although they have their place), but actually horror. And then, of course, implementing those factors while keeping in mind players' tendency to do the thing you don't expect!
Look at Hackdirt, for instance-- even if Lovecraft is rather over-used. It was a bit too heavy-handed, plus the PC had the option of walking away at any moment; there's a reason why horror movies & stories are often set in areas that isolate the main characters. That sense of not having anyone to rely on AT ALL is what made Hackdirt interesting to me.
It also lacked a real sense of risk-- yes, there was a rescue-the-NPC quest, but there wasn't enough time to get attached to the NPC, or even care what happened to them. What if you had had several interactions with the NPC over time? (See also BethForums' Relationship thread.) And, of course, the risk to the player can feel minimal, especially if you're not playing Dead Is Dead....
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Okay, those are ALL good starts!
I agree that bringing back Vincente would be kind of unnecessarily complicated-- but maybe he had an apprentice of some kind... someone who's going to be very, very unhappy with the PC, and is going to try to lure him/her into a trap.
Houses are easier than you'd think-- check out this tutorial, for example: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Creating_a_House . Maybe add something unusual to it-- it's haunted, but by not by anything evil-- maybe it's a lonely ghost who just sometimes leaves the owner messages or asks the owner to bring in fruit, or books, or something like that.
Plenty of people have made brand-new races with custom textures & meshes & everything else. You could always do one using vanilla resources only, but what would make it interesting? Maybe a special new power, or a race that's uniquely skilled at a specific class? You might never release it, but just the process of putting it together might be fun.
And IMO, the best way to learn is just to get in there and start making mistakes! :D
I wanna start modding but have NO idea were to start,,
in Discussion
Posted
Nobody knows about Skyrim yet-- way too soon to tell. I definitely hope it'll have a decent SDK. It won't use the same engine, so the current CS won't work with it.
Something to keep in mind either way: start small, not huge. If you look through the mod requests forum, you'll see dozens of topics with huge ideas that never, ever get made. Come up with something small-- 2-3 NPCs, a few locations, a single quest-- plan it out thoroughly in advance, and consider sticking to vanilla content only. You'll learn a lot in the process, you won't overwhelm yourself, and your mod will stand a much better chance of getting released.
Welcome to the world of modding! It's both harder and easier than you'd think, and a lot of fun!