Mujuro

If you'd like to make a follower based on an existing, custom race from another mod, or use assets from another mod, you'll need to make those mods dependencies in your mod. Take a look at this tutorial on de-isolation for additional information. Note that most of your work for this will need to be done in the CK, not NPC Editor.

It sounds like you may not have packaged them properly. Make sure your archive (assuming you're not compacting all your files into BSA format) has the following structure, based on ...\skyrim\Data: YouMod.esp Meshes\ textures\ scripts\ (.pex compiled scripts) scripts\source (.psc files, if you choose to include them) Sound\ ....

Thanks everyone for providing comments, please keep them coming! :) @Invisible Man Gals do stuff like that sometimes. :P @lordrichter That's the dilemma; you may remember that the earliest versions of Ceri were designed to be more "functional" versus her being fleshed out with her own personality, questline, etc. I'd thought long and hard about this when initially designing Ceri, and that's why I decided to leave her in the vanilla follower system. What I didn't anticipate was how many users wanted Ceri to have her own personality and be more of an "independent" companion versus a vanilla follower who had a slightly better situational AI, which, in turn started driving Ceri versions 1.3+. But it wasn't until really getting into Ceri's v1.7 quest installment that I started running into roadblocks associated with her being in the vanilla follower system. @Exsanguinatio There's a lot more than can be done with Ceri outside the vanilla system, as you've seen. :P The catch, as you noted, is that Ceri looses the benefits of mods that improve the vanilla system, short of me simulating some of those features (of which some are easier than others to do). And no, I don't mind you referencing Vilja at all; as I've mentioned on a few occasions, Vilja really set the standard for companions in Oblivion, and it goes without saying that she's raised that bar again with Skyrim Vilja). :) In fact, if Vilja was already released for Skyrim when I started building Ceri, I most likely wouldn't have created her. :)

Sometimes it's that easy, but not always. :P How do I verify that they are set up and being filled properly? In terms of setting them up, the best thing I can say is to follow the guidance for Reference Aliases. As I said earlier, short of knowing exactly what it is you're trying to do and then digging into your mod and scripts, there's not much more any of us here can do. In terms of being filled properly, you can do this at least a couple of different ways: Go in game with your quest running, go into the console, and do a "sqv yourquestname" without the quotes and hit enter, and see if the aliases are filled properly or are "none" when they shouldn't be empty. Add debug.traces for your aliases in your script code. It is 010051A0. So, you are suggesting 03010051A0 as the FormID to feed additem? If 010051a0 is the CK form ID, go in game, open the console, and type "player.additem xx0051a0" without the quotes, where xx is your mod's load position. E.g., if your load position is "1F", you'd be doing "player.additem 1F0051a0".

Short of taking apart your mod and examining everything, it's going to be tough to say why certain things aren't working as you intended. I'll try to at least give some general pointers of where you can start troubleshooting. Do you need update.esm as a dependency for your mod? IOW, are you using assets from it? If not, don't require it. Verify your aliases are set up and being filled properly. If they're not showing up, it's usually either one or the other or both not being done properly. If you're certain your aliases are created and being filled properly, and stuff still isn't working: The CK gets finicky with automatically dropping objects into non-actor references occasionally. Try creating the letter at an actor reference (e.g., player) and then moving the item into the container. See my earlier comment about checking to see if your aliases are created/being filled properly. Regarding journal entries, make sure your test save doesn't already have the quest running, as you may have an 'older' version of your quest baked into your save. Note that journal entries also can get finicky depending on the order in which you created assets within the quest, particularly with DIALOGUE. Worst case is you'll need to create a separate admin quest that handles the journal entries/objectives. What's the form ID in the CK? What happens when you do player.additem xxFormID, where the xx = mod load position? I'm assuming based on your earlier comment that your weapon form ID would start with 03, so you'd replace that in the additem with the actual load position. Make sure your Skyrim.ini has something similar to this: [Papyrus] fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0 bEnableLogging=1 bEnableTrace=1 bLoadDebugInformation=1 The debug files show up by default under My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Logs\Script.

As noted in my original reply, it's really up to you how you want it handled. I have a few dialogue scenes similar to what you're describing in my Cerwiden mod and, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish, I used different methods. By way of reference examples: In one of my quest segments with a 'non-hostile' boss, I leave it up to the player as to what action to take in terms of dialogue or combat and, if combat, WHEN the combat starts (e.g., prior to the FG, during dialogue by breaking it off, by selecting the combat option during dialogue, or even after the dialogue completes). To implement this, I have quest stages set up with the various permutations, and an alias management script that uses an OnHit event. So if the player goes along the "happy path", everything is triggered via topic fragment scripts that set the associated quest stage. By contrast, if the player attacks straight away, the alias script sets the associated stage indicating that dialogue is by-passed, and sets the hostility + combat start, etc. Finally, if the player decides to attack *AFTER* (e.g., player fails to keep his/her word to the boss NPC), the alias sets yet another quest stage, etc., where a consequence dialogue gets forced after the boss is killed. I also have another battle where the player MUST go through the dialogue, etc., and for that, I lock the player controls. I don't re-enable the controls until the dialogue is complete (e.g., when I want combat to start).

There's definitely something glitching with the servers. I've had to download the same mod several times to even get it to register as having been downloaded for the purpose of endorsing it. This happened to me with 2 mods: Resources for Modders Tutorial - Creating Standalone NPCs I've also been seeing a marked increase in "bad gateway" messages, as well as SQL connection errors over the past few days.

There are a few different ways to do this, depending on how your quest is set up. Here's one way to do it. Set your boss' faction as something neutral/non-hostile to player faction. Set a quest stage that initiates a scene/forcegreet package, noting that depending on how the encounter is set up, you may need to lock the player controls, etc., such that the player doesn't start attacking the boss prior to the dialogue (or account for the player doing so, etc., just depends how you want this handled). At the end of your dialogue, have your topic fragment GetOwningQuest.SetStage(x) back to some holder stage that indicates your desired dialogue has been completed by the player. In that stage (x), set your boss' faction hostility/enemy to player faction (away from neutral/non-hostile), and StartCombat().

If you're able to pull your saves off Steam, you can use Wrye Bash like chaospearl said to get the (ordered) mods associated with the save.

it's really hard to say without knowing more about your load order specifics, etc., what could be causing issues. First off, try using BOSS to sort your load order with all else equal. Second, regarding certain vanilla quests, some are not meant to be done with followers (at least those that use the vanilla follower system), so the game "dismisses" any you may have with you.

After you load up a save, go into your System menu, click settings, and scroll down to the various "save" options and uncheck them.

I've never tried doing what you're doing, so I could be completely off-base here. I believe what you need to do is the following, based on your screenshot above: Make a copy of the "SkinHorseGreyHide" form Open up your copy and change the meshes you find to your custom ones. This is all assuming, of course, that you have custom meshes that already point to your new textures. Otherwise, make note of the meshes, go into your Skyrim\Data\Meshes and find them, make copies/rename, and point them to your new custom textures.

@Caladyiel Thanks, the feedback definitely helps! @Wasbunny There's quite a lot that got added with v1.7, and Elric is merely a prototype of sorts (only 2 modes, ). I've got some thoughts on expanding archetypes, as well as providing a more "permanent" warrior archetype option. @lexx005 The friend system Ceri has from v1.6 would be what I would need to expand a bit more if I were to take her out of the system, as right now, the friend functionality is tied to the vanilla system. I've got some thoughts on how I'd do that, but need to do some prototyping. @Agriasbloodmoon I'd not done a mount earlier mainly because of Ceri being in the vanilla system, and other mods that improve vanilla already cover mounts (UFO, CH, etc.). That said, and because of some issues relating to mounts that arose during testing of Ceri v1.7, I'd started thinking about moving Ceri out of vanilla, for better or worse. Getting Ceri to have her own mount isn't difficult; in fact, she DOES have her own for certain quest segments, and I'd forced an override for her to use her own mount instead of any supplied by CH by way of example (simple vanilla mount, no special textures, etc.). What I was more concerned about was the loss of functionality associated with mods like CH (like mounted combat for followers, for which Mitchalek did an amazing job). Ceri's healing would remain unaffected by the move, as her healing doesn't check against the vanilla system in any case (I found that too narrow for my personal liking :P). Regarding her use of armor, I'd intentionally set her proficiency low, but I do understand fully about her being "squishy" (I play protected version, and have had to reload plenty because she gets crushed :(). That said, I'm not convinced the solution to this issue is to have increased armor proficiency for Ceri. Rather, I believe it "should" go more to combat archetypes/roles, and "crowd control". Stated differently, a warrior archetype's "role" in combat is, among other things, to draw and tank opponents. By contrast, Ceri's role is to support and heal/cast. As such, it's a warrior's job to keep the riff-raff "off" Ceri. I made the initial foray into this sort of combat behavior in Ceri v1.7, with the introduction of a (temporary) warrior archetype that has a "tank" mode with "taunt" ability. I'm still thinking about how I want to make this more permanent for players. Finally, about setting her home, if I end up moving her out of vanilla, I'll need to do something like that (right now, when dismissed, she only has 2 options ... stay in area or go back to Riverwood). I'd not done that because there are other mods that allow you to set follower homes already. @calfurius I'm planning to have, at a minimum the start for, the romance sub-plot released with Ceri v1.8. I've been chatting with JanusForbeare, DreamKingMods and Emma, and it appears that we may not be able to work much interaction among our followers until December 2012/January 2013 at the earliest, so I may switch focus to getting as much in for Ceri's "personal" side quest installment instead.

@Wasbunny and @zeromus88 Thanks for the input! I put up the questions for the poll based on feedback received in Ceri's main comment thread, as well as some PMs received from users. I'd really not thought back to the the larger "vanilla system" question until it came to light again when doing certain things in Ceri's v1.7 questline and realized that her being in the vanilla system (and thus inheriting benefits from popular follower mods) was actually interfering with some of her functionality (I probably spent a good 2 weeks just trying to figure out a workaround). So that got me thinking again. :P Regarding other archetypes, I'm also curious as to what you all would like to see. Based on the early feedback right after Ceri's initial release, there were some who had expressed interest in having a warrior archetype with "taunt", and I finally got around to creating the basic functionality for that with the quest NPC Elric in Ceri v.1.7. To balance the "taunt", I made it so that Elric barely attacks in that mode, and instead, goes into more of a defensive posture (as compared with his "Reaver" mode, where he'll attack, but he won't taunt at all). But beyond that particular archetype, what other archetypes would be useful in party combat?

I would have to concur with the others; I generally look for what a mod does in the description. If I end up seeing hype/sales only, and need to scroll to see what the mod actually offers, there's a chance I may just leave the page. To varying degree, I'm sure all modders would like people to use/enjoy their mods, so I fully understand mod promotion. But in terms of whether the mod is the "best", etc., I generally prefer to leave that to each individual user to decide based on their own playstyles, mod desires, etc., as to do otherwise I "could" come across as presumptuous.

NMM is for Nexus sites AFAIK. If you're using Steam Workshop for your mods, they should download automatically, and you just activate them via the Launcher. Please read the basics of using mods link I posted to you and make sure you've got the appropriate versions of everything and have your load order correctly done.

It sounds like your 2nd mod has an installer (read the instructions that come with the mods on how to install). You should probably also read up on the basics of using mods, load order, etc., as it seems like this is your first time using mods. Links to mod managers: NMM Wrye Bash

Hi everyone, First off, thanks to everyone who provided feedback in Cerwiden's previous development polls for versions 1.4 through 1.7. Ceri has grown considerably in the 3 short months since her initial v1.0 release, and in no small part because of the improvements suggested by you. This poll will largely relate to Ceri v1.9, as I'll be using the feedback from Poll 3 to give me ideas for Ceri v1.8. And on that front, I've been speaking with JanusForbeare, DreamKingMods and Emma about how we might add interactivity elements for Ceri, Atvir, Aela and Vilja. This current poll focuses on fleshing out some additional abilities for Ceri and/or taking a new direction and going back to the original "party framework" concept that I'd envisioned when I first created her. For those of you who've played Ceri v1.7's quest installment and recruited the ally NPCs, you'll see that I took the recognition framework from v1.6 and extended it slightly to accommodate the very basics of archetypes. There's also one question I'd like to get some feedback on that I've not included in this current poll, simply because it is somewhat of a "loaded question": Should Cerwiden be taken out of the vanilla follower system? There are a few reasons why I'm asking this question now, and it's actually something I'd considered doing when I first created Cerwiden, but decided against. First, I'm spending a fair bit of time associated with developing and testing against the popular follower framework/improvement mods (UFO, EFF, AFT, Convenient Horses, Wearable Lanterns, Followers Relax, etc.). As each of those mods evolve and improve over time, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep up with and test as many permutations/combinations as I'd like, and even with the help of some amazing volunteer testers. Related to this, I'm also spending a fair bit of time "troubleshooting" issues that may relate to these other mods (and that don't have anything in particular to do with Ceri's functionality). Of course, there are some considerable benefits and drawbacks of each approach. Being in the vanilla follower system means that Ceri inherits the benefits and features associated with the mods that improve the system (e.g., Followers Relax, Convenient Horses, Wearable Lanterns, etc.). If I take her out of the vanilla system, she loses all that, and it may not be practical for me to "reinvent" some of the awesome features provided by those mods, even if I wanted to. By contrast, leaving her "as is", Ceri also inherits any limitations of being in the system, and I'm spending a fair bit of time working "overrides" to get Ceri to do certain things that would have been much easier to do if she wasn't in the vanilla system (one of the reasons it took so long to get v1.7 done was because I was having trouble with one of these "overrides"). There's no right-or-wrong answer to this of course; I'm just wondering how many Ceri users would care one way or the other on this question, and I do recognize that changing would impact many users (e.g., I know many of you use CH with Ceri). Thanks again to everyone who provided suggestions, comments and feedback for Ceri; Ceri wouldn't be where she is today without each and every one of you. Mujuro

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Now that Ceri v1.7 is released, I'm going to close this poll and see what I can do about increased interaction for Ceri v1.8. :)

You need to decide whether you want the mods to be dependent first, and the approach you take to do the modifications will depend on that decision. Before doing any of this, you should understand how the process of dependencies work in general, so take a look at this tutorial on de-isolation and dependencies. From there, you should be able to do a patch mod that uses the others as dependencies, with your changes sync'd with both. If you want your mod to be "standalone" and not require either of the two, you'll basically need to merge the content you want from both and do so in a manner that avoids ID conflicts. There are a couple of ways you can do this, the first is using TES5Edit to merge the content, the 2nd is to use the CK to do it via version control.

The CK will not allow you to save as ESM. Remember that the CK considers ESMs as master files, and not plugins, and the CK only allows saving of plugins (ESP). All you need to do is save as ESP, then convert to ESM by using any number of tools that do this (Wrye Bash, TESVSnip, a hex editor, etc.).

Try a condition run on the player of "HasKeyword:Vampire". So your dialogue condition would look like: Target: PL (player) Function Name: HasKeyword Function Info: Keyword: 'Vampire' Comp: == Value: 1.00

If you use a mod manager, just use that to install automatically where it should go. Popular mod managers include NMM (just download from the many links all over the Nexus sites) and Wrye Bash. If you're doing manual install, the mods should conform with your Skyrim install directory (where tesv.exe is) such that your mods go in Skyrim\Data. So you need to open up the 7z archives for the mods and see how they are packed inside. E.g., do they have the Data folder and the subfolders inside? Or do they only have the subfolders (e.g., esm/esp and Meshes, textures folders, etc.). To extract, select 7z's extract to location to be [your Skyrim install path]\Skyrim\Data.

Glad it worked! :)

What you've got there is the SYMPTOM of another problem. Typically, what you're looking at there is what happens when your computer/game runs out of resources to process scripts. Basically, what it is saying is that it cannot find the requisite reference to check for LOS (in your context, that's highly doubtful to be the case). But what does beg the question from your log excerpt is what is in position 03 in your load? You've got a gazillion things running that have to do with what appear to be a single cell. Like activating a bunch of weapon racks?