Urwy

I guess finding the right program to use depends on which one suits you best. Ghosu mentioned that hes using C4D, which is fine if thats the one he likes best. I personally prefer Blender 2.63, which is a lot more user-friendly than 2.49 even though it lacks the nif-plugin for skyrim. 3dsMax is (afaik) one of the few programs that fully support Skyrim nifs, so i too am using that one to do the skinning. Try some of them and pick the one that feels right to you. =)

Makes me curious as to which Zar'roc mod you're referring.. =) Reason for this is that i've been part of a mod team that tried to recreate alagaesia, and failed horribly >.> Having said that, working on Zar'roc has been quite the pain in the arse XD If i had it my way back then (and i knew how to model), i wouldve made the one as shown in the image next to Brisingr. But alas, the team went with the movie adaptation of the sword. Somehow we never got dragonhead hilt right. Massive props to the guy that succeeds where we have failed :thumbsup:

K'plah! to the Tribble who wants to give this a go! :pirate:

Welcome back Ghosu! Good to have you around again. And i see you're already getting back to your usual awesome works =) Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, and hoping you'll be fit as a fiddle sooner, rather than later =)

I'm no expert on animations, but believe that would either require 2 models for every weapon, (1 model built for 1 handed animations and 1 for 2 handed. and a nifty script that switches one model with the other.) or a script that changes the used animations on the fly, along with the "Tag" inside the model files (the WeaponBack, WeaponSword, WeaponAxe and WeaponDagger. Although the dagger might not be needed) The 2 mods mentioned above (afaik) are just two handed meshes, with 2-hander stats, tagged with a one handed tag such as WeaponSword or WeaponAxe. (correct me if im wrong though.) Might be doable for someone well versed in scripts and skyrim animations, though. (Nope, i'm not one of those people :P Just sharing my thoughts.)

There's tons of requests like this... :rolleyes: 1 2 3 4 Especially 3 shows the work involved. And unless someone makes a new reloading animation for one handed ranged weapons, these will probably be remodelled staffs, just like the guns we already have. (Maybe the weapon model itself has some moving bits, but you get the idea.)

Or you can try the staff animations, since it also performs a sort of stabbing motion.

Looking good! =) Skyrim - Meshes.bsa for the player skeleton. Skyrim - Animations.bsa for the animations (obviously :) ) You'll need something like BSA unpacker, BsaOpt, BSA Browser or FOMM to unpack the files you need. Also found this tutorial. Not sure if there's a tool with graphical interface to replace the Havok command line tool, though. http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Working_with_animations_in_Skyrim

Ah, well a friend here on the forums said he was using Gmax to rig crossbows. So that's why i thought Gmax was still usable for this. Blender is quite date as well, but has the advantage of having a working nif importer/exporter. The downside to that is that the tool doesnt support skyrim (officially). But there's some ways to make it work though. (a tutorial on the nexus wikia if i remember correctly.) I though he was trying to add a new animation for the staves instead of replacing one.. :unsure: Granted, If replacing an animation is the goal, it 'd be a lot simpler to achieve. What if the animations are Gamebryo ones baked into the nif, rather than separate Havok hkx files? What would be the procedure to import these baked-in animations to Blender, then after editing them, export them from Blender back into the CK and fix up any loose ends to make them work in Skyrim? I'm afraid i cant help very much on that subject. :ohdear:

Well, i cant say ive ever tried that myself. But as far as i know, that would require a new set of animations for the humanoid skeleton, which might be tricky since skyrim, by default, doesnt accept any new animations. However, you could try to see if FNIS - Fores new idles Skyrim or PC exclusiveanimations can provide a starting point. It enables modders to add new animations by allowing the game to access modified, duplicate animations. Once you've got the animation you'll probably need a script to apply those new animations when staves are wielded. Atleast, that's how i would imagine one would do that. Hope some of this makes sense :)

Wouldnt it be better to do this by means of an "Expansion plugin"? That way you keep maximum compatibility and play value, whilst minimizing the requirements. :turned:

Version 2.49 stil has the latest stable version of nifscripts. 2.63 does not. Depends on what you'd like to do. New items? Nifskope, Gimp/Photoshop. If the items have a skeleton (armor, crossbows, creatures) Then you'd need 3ds max/GMax with the correct niftools (3.7.1 is recommended, as 3.7.3 has some bugs) Heh, guess i sort of answered that already :P For me personally: 1: Sketch 2: Model 3: UV map 4: Textures (3ds Max rigging) 5: Nifskope 6: CK 7: Skyrim If you're using blender 2.49, then yeah. There's some tricks to make the Nifs exported by blender work in skyrim. Not so much in 2.63 (afaik) I hope that answers your question. If not, just post some more =)

If you click the line one, then press F3, a so called "Detail block" should pop up at the bottom of your screen. You'll find that same "WeaponBack" in there. click the small "TXT" icon next to it, and enter "WeaponSword" in the window that pops up :) Edit: Post 666... :devil: Muhahaha! :tongue:

I'd recommend BYOG - Balance your own game. It allows you to edit those values yourself, ingame. =) http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18474

Almost :) WeaponBack to either WeaponSword, WeaponAxe or WeaponDagger, whichever weapon it should behave like. :) From there on its pretty much off to the CK and telling it to use either 1handed animations, add the right weapontype and edit the stats.

Lol! "Luke.a.m's Mine Bitches discovered" :laugh: Hilarious! Very nice indeed. It has the sort of vibe i got from bruma back in oblivion. (Which is a good thing ;) ) Also feels like skyrim's version of Nehrim. I'm so gonna track this topic! :teehee: Definitely an interesting mod to follow during development. Wish i had the time to contribute as a modeller or texturer. =(

I know that .but thats only if you start from scratch. i hear that there's a esp converter for oblivion to skyrim being developed somewhere. we could use that to convert the most popular oblivion mods like elsweyr,sovvm,hammerfell and then port them here. we just need to first decide on the size of the entire tamrielic worldspace,including addons and new lands.once thats fixed the teams that you mentioned can start working on one land at a time.we could start by skyrimming oblivion cyroddil. You'll need a lot more than an esp converter :turned: Nif's have to be upgraded to work with skyrim, textures need to be redone (since Oblivion handled specularity quite differently if i recall correctly). The problem isnt the landmass itself, its filling that landmass with things to do. Still, it'll be nice if in a few years from now someone manages to release something like this :happy:

An ENB usually tweaks the displayed colors, DOF, bloom, etc. It will not increase actual detail on the textures themselves. Whereas a texture mod will actually increase the detail visible at close distances, but will not tweak DOF, bloom, lighing colors. And since these are two completely different types of mods, they'll work together just fine :) Just be sure to keep your system specs in mind. Because a texture pack with 4k textures might not work very well on an older pc. This also counts for an ENB that adds a lot of visual effects, but probably to a lesser degree.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/746 Also shuts up every other NPC walking by :) Last updated at 20:26, 9 Feb 2012 How can you be sure that it works especially since it was last updated months before the DLC? Because im using it myself since before the DLC, and i havent heard serana say a thing besides the standard "ooh a cave, i wonder what's inside?" and when i start talking to her. =) So yeah, it works. Edit: For proofing my point: My load order :P

So far so good! :) Would you mind sharing the Polycount? Just curious :turned:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/746 Also shuts up every other NPC walking by :)

I'l like to give you a few suggestions that might help you along, if i may :) Warning! Wall of texts below! /Warning! I dont know if you've got Dawnguard. but if you do, you might have a look at the vampire lord form. It doesnt swim.. ever. Once it hits water, it starts to hover as if its in "flight form" as id like to call it, which sounds like something you might be looking for. Or make it unable to swim at all, but just walk along to bottom of the river/sea/lake :P Very nice! You could use the Mannequin's wooden texture and replace it with something a bit more metallic :P Although that does get very close to what this mod does: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12996 Maybe even ask permission to use this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4819 Just use that to replace the body of the race to make sure u can still use armor on top of that ;) Again, very nice touch. Maybe a weakness to shock is in order? :) Maybe an ENB that the mod's user should add to their game? Since there's an ENB around that makes everything look like minecraft graphics XD something like that might work, though it should be a little less obvious ofc. True, but i´d use the Dwemer lexicons instead. That way vanilla skyrim even supports the idea of the cube storing data :) (used in the quest "Transcribing the transmundane" Sounds like something that might be do-able :) Since the handcannon doesnt need any visible moving parts, aside from pulling a reload lever. It probably even possible to create some sort of ammunition port on top to load a round, by linking that ports shutter to one of the X/bow´s skeleton =D (i'd love to try this! if only i had a decent gun to try it with :( ) Maybe make a quest where you learn how to construct one? :) Similar to this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22408 only with the addition of you needing to craft it from dwemer parts or something. Maybe add a lesser power they can use to trade stamina for a temporary pool of magicka. Like 1-on-1 conversion of power. Think of it as powering down its engines to redirect that power to its weapons. I hope these suggestions are somewhat what you were looking for :)

True, but those were just staffs with a new model and projectiles. Still, i like seeing someone so determined to succeed :) I'll be sure to pick up your mod once it's completed. :thumbsup: For now i'll be tracking this topic :)

He's got a valid point. If it was something someone who still needs to learn how to add things to skyrim could do easily, it would've been done a hundred times already. Having said that, and you're not deterred, i'd like to point out that there are animation mods that alter the animations for the player character, but not the npc's. Maybe that'll hold some clues to get your custom sword animation. Perhaps its possible to create a script/enchantment/perk that temporarily assigns a custom race to the player character, which would allow for a custom animation. Some animation mods that might help you out: FNIS: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11811 Good luck on your mod!

Well, i guess an update on my attempt is in order... To keep it short: No luck. And to be honest, the urge to mod seems to be fading. So i'm afraid there wont be much results coming from me :unsure: Sorry mate.