VanKrill

I use Nifskope extensively. A good note editor, particular Notepad++ with the Papyrus script module is a good idea if you're going to be doing a bit of scripting. TESSnip is good for some esp file edits, but you must be careful, as the tool is not certified for all elements of a modern esp file. Better to use TES5Edit, if it has the ability to access the fields you're after. Milkshake, 3d editor, with the exporter mod for Skyrim NIF files is needed to make new meshes. I don't usually bother with this, as it is very time consuming and error prone. I find it easier to simply modify an existing mesh, or combine elements of several meshes, in Nifskope. And with any project, take the time to PLAN out the scope of the project, define milestones and an expected schedule and hours effort per element. I cannot tell you how many projects I've seen others fail to complete, because they took on what seemed like a doable project, only to discover their scope of effort was much too large to complete in a single lifetime! For instance, creating 40 new meshes of different realistic, HD Mushrooms, seems like an easy project. But, that is 40X Flora world mesh for shroom as found in the forest floor or cave. Ingredient Meshes Cooked food meshes. Texture files, Diffuse, Normal, and possibly enviroment masks for each of the above 120 NIF files... meaning around 300-ish files Esp file BSA file Readme file HTML document file for posting on Nexus Imagines for explaining / describing the mod on the nexus page So, around 500 files total. If you spend just 2 minutes on average for each piece of the project, that's a 30 hour project! -

Thanks a bunch! I've been fighting this stupid quirk for months! The Bethesda CK and concept of allow us to make mods is great, but some of the aspects of the CK interface are less than well implemented. I'm making a long list of all these weird quirks in the system. I wonder if they'd let us modders at the source code for the CK, so we could do a version 2.0? -

Thank you! This example helped solve a problem I was working on. -

This is the intersection between Papyrus scripting and CK Dialog, and the general subject is called "Code Fragments". I'm am NOT an expert at using Papyrus Fragments to support scripting. I know enough to know that's how you would do what you want, but I've never actually used the technique myself. You can scan through the existing vanilla dialog for common quests, like the main quest like in Helgen's keep, were your companion gives you a bow to shoot the bear, during the sneaking tutorial, near the exit, to see how it is done. Essentially, a stage of the quest has a condition triggered small section of Papyrus code, referred to as a Fragment, to add the bow to the player's inventory. Fragments are just scripts, but they have the following differences from other scripts: 1] They never work by themselves, but are almost always triggered by a stage of dialog. They can be triggered by activators or magical effects too. 2] They are short, usually less than 20 lines, including comments 3] They usually do just one thing. 4] They do not stay active in memory, storing information for later use, they are temporary, not persistent. 5] Unlike quest stages, the status of and variables of Fragments are usually not saved in the savegame file. You can make a fragment persistent, but for a host of reasons, it is a bad game design practice. Here is a tutorial on the subject: https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Quest_Stage_Fragments www. creationkit.com/index.php?title=Quest_Stage_Fragments I hope that info gets you started. -

If you need some inspiration to plot lines, NPCs, dialog, and quests for this mod, I would suggest reading the J.R.R. Martin stories about Ser Duncan and the Egg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Dunk_and_Egg They encompass a series of tales about a hedge knight with limited funds, and only moderate wit, but a honest heart and full of honorable zeal. I could easily see a Skyrim mod based on such concepts, were various knights, sworn to service to the varied Jarl's go to tourney's, and at those events, get involved in all sorts of plots. Good Luck with your mod concept, I hope to play it one day. -

But you could re-create the same mod, with enhancements for the DLC content, using all your own, or permission granted resources, it just makes creating the updated version allot of work, and you'll have to get the module a new name. Some of the best mods out there were created just because of the old mod concept being abandoned. In the description of the new mod, you can state that the new work is a re-cast of the old concept, but you cannot claim it is an update of the old mod. You cannot directly use any of the old mods contents, including: Nif files, Textures, scripts, dialog, message boxes, and sound files. Simply renaming those files, usually won't fool anyone who is tracking the old mod for content theft. Start over from scratch. Typically, people get in trouble when using resources which are attached to a franchise or branded product line, without permission from the franchise owner. So, there are permitted Star Wars mods for Skyrim, made with the permission of the Star Wars Franchise owner, Lucus Films. It is a form of advertisement for their franchise, and so they allow it. However, if the original makes of the Jedi Robes mod dies, or just stops modding, and you want to create an updated version, you could recreate the meshes, as "Space Monks" using a from scratch NIF file. You would get into trouble if you took the original NIF files, and modified them, and then presented them as "Space Monks", because someone hired by Lucas Films will see through the renaming of the NIF files, and go to the Nexus Admin with accusations of content Piracy. So, be careful, because this is the single largest cause of people being banned from Nexus. -

There is a free 3d modeling piece of software called milkshake, which has Skyrim NIF file import and export modules which can be downloaded from here on Nexus. There is a bit of a learning curve in using any 3d modeling package. You need to understand what a Normal file is... Imagine a small 1 inch square of paper sitting on a desk. Now, mark the exact center of the paper, by drawing lines from corner to corner, forming an X. Next, in your minds eye, place a tooth pick on the center mark, pointing straight up from the paper, such that the angle from the plane of the paper to the tooth pick in 90 degrees, no matter which rotational angle you measure it from. By definition, a "Normal" to a surface is the pointer going in the direction that is 90 degrees from the surface plane The tooth pick points in the direction of the surface Normal. Now, lay a whole bunch of different colored squares with their normal toothpicks in rows and columns all around the first. Tape the squares together to form a patchwork blanket. Each square is a pixel of the texture file. Now, pick the blanket up, and drape it over a large beach ball. The tooth picks will now point outward from the surface of the ball, like the quills on a sea urchin, or a porcupine. Because you've "Mapped" the Texture fill onto the curved surface of the Beach Ball. When the 3d render engine of the game and your graphics card calculates what is seen in view plane of the screen, it uses the "normals" to calculate how light would come from the light source to the game's view plane. So, a Normal pointer is calculated for each pixel, based on the small triangle surface facets of the 3d mesh file. You cannot create a Normal file, without both the texture file, to know where each pixel lies, and the Mesh file, to know the plane of the mesh at the point of the pixel. It is a list of mathematical descriptions of a bunch pointers normal to the surface, one for each pixel in the texture file, defined by the angle of the mesh facets at the location of each pixel. Hence, a Normal File, can ONLY be created inside 3d modeling software that has both mesh and texture defined. You don't manually calculate all those little tooth pick pointers, you just press a button on the 3d software package, to start the macro which generates the Normal file, now that you're done modifying the Mesh and the Texture. So, generation of a Normal File is a final processing step in creating a 3d model in a program like Milkshake. You can open a Normal Pointer file in a 2d texture image editing software, but your not really seeing the normal file for what it is, you're just seeing the image software trying to display the points as colored pixels. You're seeing mathematical descriptions of toothpick like pointers mapped into a 2d panel of colored pixels. Using a Texture file editor to manipulate a Normal file will generally create a completely corrupted Normal File. I hope that description helps.

You can make them easiliy enough, if you have a Mesh of a belt, and can use NifSkope. I suggest using Body Slot 50, for belts, to insure maximum compatibility with a majority of other mods. Here are tutorials on changing body slots on meshes: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/576983-tutorial-assign-meshes-to-new-body-parts/ http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Skyrim_bodyparts_number I suggest the following uses for the body slots: 30 - Helm 31 - Hair 32 - Armor 33 - Gloves 34 - Forearms 35 - Amulet 36 - RingR 37 - Boots 38 - Calves 39 - Shield 40 - Tail 41 - LongHair 42 - Circlet 43 - Ears 44 - Mantle 45 - Colar 46 - Cloak 47 - Backpack 48 - Mittens 49 - Skirt 50 - Belt 51 - Overshoes 52 - Slongs 53 - Stockings Right 54 - UnderPants 55 - Mask 56 - Undershirt 57 - BagFrontRight 58 - BagFrontLeft 59 - Robe 60 - misc/FX 61 - FX01 131 - Overhood 142 - Cap It will not completely "mesh" (pun intended) with every other mod out there, but conflicts will be minimal, and usually ignorable. -

I don't want to look at a naked guy... but I'd don't mind naked women, if they're not all wrinkly and nasty, I rather enjoy naked women. I'm guessing most of the Skyrim audience base is hetero-male. There is also basic biological and psychological gender differences which lead to the available mod differences. Males are very visually oriented when it comes to factors of attraction. If she had a healthy head of hair, then her body can produce enough extra proteins to made a baby. Breasts... well, gotta feed the child. Clear skin, no disease. Males seek a mate by mostly visual queues. Women seek other things in a mate. Is he loyal? Will he be patient with a screaming child? How well does he hunt and provide? Can he defend the home? These are not questions you can answer by just looking at the outside of the male in question. You have to talk to them, observe them, talk to those they've been around for a long time. Women seek mates through social interaction, status symbols and reputation, not visual queues. In those mods which feature Males who cannot be stripped below underwear, I'll bet that many had status symbol armor and weapons? I'll bet that the fighting prowess of the companion was described. I'll bet they had extensive dialog interaction options. I've a wife of 35 years, two grown daughters, and three grand-daughters... I've been watching women for some time. Most women don't care much about the nudity, they care about other indicators of being a good mate and companion. Men can be rather superficial. -

He may have ran afoul of some of the Nexus rules and was forced to pull his mods. It happens fairly often, from what I've read. One of the reasons I've never tried to post any of my mods here, but only use other distribution forums. Nexus has allot of good things about it, but if you accidentally get on their wrong side, the word is, they can be vindictive. -

Yes, I think we're all very aware of Boudicca, and the acceptance in CELTIC-Only medeval society of women warriors. The PC agenda of the Public Schools makes damn sure of it. Viking Shield-Maidens were slightly different in character. They were considered auxiliaries and defensive line troops, not front line aggressors. But they existed. They were both also, historically, very rare. No matter, Skyrim is FANTASY, not anything like reality. Real Vikings didn't have to contend with Draugr or Liches, and they didn't have the tools of Fire Runes and Frost Bolts to do it. There is a video game called Mount & Blade, which attempts to capture a historically accurate version of the era. http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/1/146/box_142565-hd.jpg In the game, Mount and Blade, there are only few warrior women. I like it, but not as much as Skyrim. And I like the concept of the Warrior Queen as well. Most of my companions, in my Skyrim play throughs, have been such. Its hard to beat Lydia! And I really don't find the idea of sharing a tent, and bitter cold night, with a big, hairy, stinking, male, barbarian warrior... that is not an enticing fantasy. In the above posts, I'm just trying to give the OP poster a bit of perspective about why the Skyrim Modding community makes the types of mods that they do, and what the thinking/motivation is behind them. P.S. From what I've read on forums and mod response posts, quite a few Male Skyrim players, play female Heroic chacters, with Female Companion SideKicks. The pair are usually played as romantically envolved. I personally find that strange, and can't image playing that way, but I don't judge. Again, these players are searching for and downloading attractive female companion mods. -

There is another aspect of the Skyrim Fantasy and its audience to consider. I'd be willing to bet that Bethesda has done audience demographic studies and knows who it is writing the games for... I'd bet that the vast majority of the Skyrim purchasing audience is Hetero White Males between the ages of 12 and 32 who are rather nerdish, non-athletic, and socially clumsy, particularly around women. I'm now as OLD as the hills, but I fit that demographic when I first formed an interest in the elder scrolls series of games. Well, our fantasy is to be the strong, big, dexterious, heroic warrior who saves the damsel(s) in distress, and is rewarded with a warm, wet, Kiss and more... Who wants a bunch of other males to compete with our Hero in that scenario? Do you want a campanions who are likely to get half or more of the eager wenchs in the town you save from the evil Grendel Troll? Much better to have those companions end up, after the battle is done, even MORE eager wenchs, who will drink and laugh with you as you go swiving among the townsfolk in the Inn, but also warm your tent on the road to the next adventure. And if those Women Companions also happened to be Bi-Sexual, and don't mind putting on a "Show" to entice you, with that brazen tavern hussy with the golden hair and doe eyes... well then... Life as the Dovahkiin is good! I suspect, at least in the minds eye of the players, most of those Female Companions are Bi-sexual co-conspirators in wenching to the player character. The player likes petite, submissive, eager, tavern wench women, so it is only reasonable that his Amazon Queen Sidekick would too! The same male player would feel kinda yick-homo creeped out to go around seeking other males to "Ride With", since in the campsite at night, you're by need of the cold, sleeping with them. Other males as companions are sexual competitors. Other Bi-Women Companions are possible mates and fun wenching-run-of-the-Taverns buddies. I am not saying that it is healthy, realistic, 2016+ real world socially acceptable behavior! But running around with meter long razor blades removing heads of anyone who annoys you isn't either... it is Fantasy. Don't underestimate the cleverness of your average Skyrim player, in making the most of his fantasy! -

If you want to get an interesting viewpoint on true medeval social gender and sexual mores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxPEcd6mLlY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thale_(film) The mythology of the Thale or Mountain Troll as a beast hybrid temptress is common in traditional Norse mythology. Norse sexual/gender mores were, not surprizingly Male-Centric and typically depected women (outside of marriage) as hazzards, temptations, and folly. -

I don't dispute the observations made in the OP. Agree with 95%. But a few observations. The Audience is demanding the junior high sex silliness because of repression in the real world. Males are not allowed to be "Males" anymore... except in a sword and sorcery video game! So, they let it out here! Where they don't get sent to the school councilor and recieve a three day suspension for it. ( A perm black mark on their potential employment record, I might add) Second, the Steel Bikini thang is largely driven by what has become endemic in our society, Power-Girls Kicking Butt around effeminate, dependent, submissive, clueless, ineffective "Boys". It is thrown at them from every angle, Rework of their comic book Heros into Lesbian Heroines, Star Wars movies with new, female, butt kicking protagonists, Power Puff Girls Cartoon network shows... for many teens and tweens, their whole lives have been saturated with the "Power Girl", "Evil, Inept, or Gay White Males". It has become "Familiar" to them. They feel out of place without it, so they take the original context of the game, and rework it with mods to become the familiar. They probably don't even do it consciously. I've got 5 grand children who are going through the same process ATM. It is disturbing. Understand, I'm not some sort of old guard sexist. My daughter is an Army Officer, because I raised her to become one from a very early age! The problem lies in Realism, Acceptence of the basic biological facts of sexual dymorphism, and differences between suspension of disbelief being spoiled by inaccurate gender role depictions, and the ever present threat of Political Correctness. The reality is, before most combat was done by machines, and chemical propellant driven slugs, Male upper body strength was a definitive addvantage! While there were a few exceptional women who made the tapestries, MOST women in the dark ages tended hearth, home and the wee bairns. But, if Bethesda made a game which accurately reflected the historical record, imagine the outrage! You can take what is given in Skyrim, and carefully mod it to reflect the historical record, but it takes work! And when you're done, most of the mod downloading audience would find the results so foreign to their familiar gender roles of 2016-> America, it would get few downloads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYaN6MfRrQ -

I use minty's and wonders of weather myself, never had those two give performance issues. I like the fact that Minty's allows the player to get struck by random lightning. It forces the player to at least THINK about heading for shelter in a storm. -

I would add, if you want to add something really interesting to the combat, you need to get some of the youtube Slow Motion, Mixed Martial Arts videos, and really study what is envolved in real life combat. New Moves would certainly be a cool addition to Skyrim, but WHAT new moves. I've always liked the idea of used combos which envolve kicks to force an opponent back and offguard position, to be followed by weapon strikes. Or possibly the trick of, when knocked down, as you rise, you grab a handfull of dirt to toss in the eyes of the opponent. Or Joint and Nerve limb manipulation... Or trips and leg sweeps... The point is, in real Sword vs. Sword Combat, only competition fencing limits the combat to sword moves. To add things like Leg sweeps, you're going to need the SKSE ability to scan for struck keys, to catch the trigger command, and then have some sort of animation, or fragment of an existing animation, which is played by both attacker, and if successful, the response of the toppled opponent. That means Scripted Attacks... which is the ugly cousin of Scripted Spells, and much harder to implement. Scripted attacks is not something we see allot of in any current skyrim mods. Because of the fast timing, you must be an expert scripter for pull it off. I am a beginner scripter. Hell I just finally figured out using a Controller Quest Reference Alias to pass actor target info between scripts. https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/954101-call-on-variables-in-other-scripts/ And it is very poorly documented. And it is full of odd quirks in the implementation. So... only a brave soul ventures into these mod goals. -

Okay, I believe you, I just haven't ever had reason to pursue it. So, does it use the same magic Magnitude Variable defined in spells? Can you make a standard magic effect, which includes a duration timer, which will take away the increase, after a preset time limit? (I believe that this was one of the requirements of the OP Request, but perhaps not...) Can you name a mod that does this, so that I can download and dissect it ? -

Okay, back home to my notes now... So, we were up to the point of restarting the ck, after adding the Reference Alias to the Quest Script. So, now you need to create the Set() assessor function. For those accustomer to sane Object Oriented Languages like C# or C++, Papyrus is... not so symetrical. There are includes, but not *.H files, or strictly speaking *.dll files, with the exception of what comes with SKSE. So, access to the Assessor Functions is not done symetrically, nor defined in the same script *.psc files. It is spread out. The SET the ReferenceAlias Function is defined in the script attached to the Quest, compiled and saved, but it is Called in the Magic Effect Script, where the value of the spell akTarget is known. In the quest script: ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scriptname Highwayman_Controler_Script extends Quest Conditional {This is a collection of Highwayman reference aliases and their support functions. This is attached to Quest Highwayman_Controller_Quest.} ReferenceAlias Property A0_alias Auto ReferenceAlias Property A1_alias Auto Function SetA0Alias(actor ActorA0) A0_alias.clear() ; This is the Golden Nugget!!! Why I took the time to reverse engineer this code!!! A0_alias.ForceRefTo(ActorA0) ; EndFunction ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Function SetA1Alias(actor ActorA1) A1_alias.clear() A1_alias.ForceRefTo(ActorA1) ; EndFunction ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And then later, in the Magic Effect Script: ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scriptname Highwayman_BrassKuckles_Script extends activemagiceffect {Placed on Magic Effect, Selects which two actors, and stores their reference alias for later use. Initiates the start of the Animation.} Highwayman_Controler_Script Property Controller Auto function OnEffectStart(actor akTarget, actor akCaster) ; ... a bunch of choice of this pass through the ME action selection if (Choice == 0) if (akTarget) Controller.SetA0Alias(akTarget) endif elseif (Choice == 1) ; 1 Set Actor 1 if (akTarget) Controller.SetA1Alias(akTarget) endif ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now, there is another Quirk#6 in the above code which might have gone un-noticed, and will cause major hair loss! The property, which set the handle, called "Controller", which is used to access the functions in the Quest Script, is NOT the name of the Quest, but rather it is the name of the Script attached to the Quest! This is very important. If you use the Quest name, you'll get a vague error, and no hint about what is wrong. The property is targeted at the script, not the quest. Type, like type int, or float, of the property, is the name of the script which is attached to the quest! Highwayman_Controler_Script Property Controller Auto The type is "Highwayman_Controler_Script". It is a Property, and it is Named Controller, and it setup to be Auto filled. This takes care of storing the Actor information, aka akTarget, from the Magic Effect script, to the persistent store of info, out in the Quest Script. But, it takes a different mechanism, which is NOT symetrical, as we see in OBL like C#, to retrieve the info. The following code is in the Magic Effect Script, or possibly any other script, which needs to use the spell selected actor information. ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ReferenceAlias Property A0 Auto ; ; Setup the Animation Actors actor[] HWMActors = new actor[2] ; HWM is Highwayman, just to make it unique. HWMActors[0] = A0.GetActorRef() ; ; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So, what would be a Get() assessor function in C#, is an inherent subfuction of the ReferenceAlias Class. You need only create and fill a property, and evoke the function. There are a BUNCH of functions to the ReferenceAlias Class: http://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=ReferenceAlias_Script This is simply the one you use to retrieve an actor value to fill an actor array, in preparation to start an animation. So.... there you go... accessing the Actor Variable from a Magic Effect Script, in another script, via the temporary, but persistent, storage container, of a ReferenceAlias in a Quest! Simple! :smile: P.S. Now that I hashed it out the hard way, reverse engineering another mod's scripts... https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3000679-accessing-another-scripts-property-values-at-runtime/ No Hair, No Mind, No Sanety! -

Well, to start with, for what you want, if you don't already use SKSE, you will have to have it, to meet your goals. Also you'll need FNIS with Spells and Creatures. Then, download and play with a few of the simpler combat mods other people have made... AND TAKE NOTES! What did you like and not like about each. Obviously, you'll need the CK, and do all of the basic Tutorials. Next, download a few of the FNIS small added animation packs, like those for improved running with drawn bow, and take them apart in the CK, to see what they did. Remember, in the CK, anything changed by the active mod has an Asterisk next to the Form Name.

Test the mods outside of the game, by selecting them one at a time, and running the varied available tests, using TES5Edit and WryeBash. Most of the really weird bugs I've finally found, I've found that way, or just looking carefully at the error messages, when I load just the one mod, in the CK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQO2S6HDBw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr7pz4JGSEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKU_R1Hqa4o Many mod makers publish their mods, without ever cleaning them of dirty edits. Shameful, but true! -

Are you using SKSE? If so, is it the latest version? The new version of SKSE has built in Skyrim.ini memory allocation expansion settings that are appropriate for 90% of the modern computers being used, so nothing more than installing SKSE is needed to resolve most memory issues. There are guides to manually change the Skyrim.ini memory management settings, but my hunch is your problem is in the RaceMenu install. The alternative to the RaceMenu approach is to use ECE or Enhanced Character Editor. Don't use both. Both would be like crossing the beams when ghost hunting... bad. -

In a worst case scenario, you can always ignore the spell magnitude variable in the magic effect entirely and use a global variable to fill the same role, and based on it, use scripts to target and call various fixed output secondary magic effects. But the system is clumsy and requires allot of handshaking with global variables. Many mods that add new skill tree elements like adding carpentry, fletcher and bowyer skills to the smithing skill tree use this technique to create independent skill levels for smithing vs.carpentry vs leather working. I personally, in my mods, just renamed the smithing skill to "Crafting", and left it all under one skill level, with various new player selected perks to accomplish the same thing. A similar technique could be used in enabling specialized shouts. Keep in mind, there are lots of hidden perks used by Bethesda in the game to add special abilities to races and NPCs. Not all perks end up in a player selected perk tree of stars on a constellation background. This is how they implemented things like the racial special powers. -

I am going to try this when I get home today. I believe that the shouts are prohibited from spell magnitude increases, being a different and tightly controlled form of magic, but I could be wrong. The guy in the above link, post #18 is able to make changes to the recovery timing of shouts in realtime, but the mechanism has some limitations on global cool down timers. -

Here is a link to a forum discussion on specifically modifying and monitoring shouts with scripts: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/775618-shout-scripting/ The discussion covers allot of what would be needed for extensive shout modification. I looked for a handle to change the currently selected shout, and did not find one...yet.

Also, If you used Amazing follower tweaks to enter vampire lord form, use the tweaks tools to reset the character.