khulse

Thank you! I was getting pretty irritated trying to figure that out! Would it be too much to ask for them to tell us that in the game?

For anyone else struggling with this who is just as aggravated that they never mention the solution and that every other topic on the subject seems to refer back to this thread as I was for the past three hours: In the nif I was working on, a renamed version of the projectile for the sprigan swarm spray spell I was recoloring, I was getting a green mist/splash effect that I didn't want just like the little flames he menions. I eventualy figured out that there was a NiNode named Mover03 with a BSValue node named AddOnNode77 attached. When I deleted it, the green mist effect went away. Then I noticed that In the creation kit there is a section under special effects called AddOnNode, and an MPSDrainGreenImpact that has an index number of 77. That's where the splash effect was coming from. It appears that in some effect nifs there are NiNodes that have a BSValue node attached. The name of the BSValue nodes are always AddOnNode and a number (such as that AddOnNode77). These refer to addonnode effects in the creation kit. Each add on node has an index number- that's the number in the BSValue node's name in nifscope. To get rid of that extra effect, you'll need to delete the BSValue node that references it from the nif (I just deleted the entire branch, parent node and all). You could also change the name of the AddOnNode to point to a more appropriate effect. Of course, there's the option to recolor the addonnode's nif. Keep in mind, though, that you'd be changing the color of every instance of that addonnode effect. I'm not sure if you could make a whole new one. There are exactly 100 in the creation kit, which suggests to me that there may be a limit on how high the index number can go. I'd experiment, but I've been pulling my hair out over this longer than I wanted to as it is lol

No one knows? I created a crossbow for my mod, and it works just fine, but my attempts at a bow aren't turning out very well. I was hoping I could use a modified version of the same mesh to shoot arrows instead of bolts, but first I need to figure out what tells the game which ammo to use to figure out if that's even possible...

Yeah. Topic basically sums it up. What tells the game that a crossbow uses bolts, or a bow uses arrows? Is it the animation? Something in the nif? The impact data set? It isn't a key word, because they use the same ones. I can't find anything in the creation kit that indicates what kind of ammo is used for a ranged weapon.

@ ReDragon2013 It works perfectly! I had to fiddle with the settings in the nif for the spell effect I wanted to get it to work as an activator, but now that it's all set up everything works more or less the way I want it to. Thank you for the help! For anyone else that's trying to use a custom spell effect with this: you need to create an activator in the creation kit. Easiest way is to clone the summontargetfxactivator and swap out the mesh for the one you want to use. The nif that I wanted to use (lurkerstompexplosion.nif) didn't work originally. I had to swap out the NiStringsExtraData block in the nif for a BSBehaviorGraphExtraData, then rename it to 'BGED' and put in Magic\IdleOnLoad.hkx in the behavior graph file field. Then I had to rename the NiControlerSequence block to mIdle. A little complicated, but it works. Edit to Add: oh, and of course, I renamed and saved the modified lurkerstomexplosion.nif. It's not a good idea to override vanilla resources if you can help it.

No, they're not, especially for someone who's trying to figure out how to do it without much in the way of scripting skill. I'll try fiddling with your's and see if it'll work the way I want it to. Thank you for the help!!! I could just switch out SummonTargetFXActivator for a different one, I suppose. The only trouble is, SummonTargetFXActivator is designed for this (it self disables), but the effect I want to use isn't there. I need to create a custom activator with the same self disable script attached and the effect I want. I'm not sure how reliable this kind of setup would be at retrieving a custom formID from a mod .esp instead of an .esm. I know filling a variable works, since 99% of papyrus scripts do it that way.

My scripting knowledge isn't much, so I'm having a little trouble. I borrowed the following script from the creation kit wiki's "complete example scripts". I've got it working consistently and so forth. I'd also like to change the spell effect it uses from the generic "SummonTargetFXActivator" to a custom effect that's more appropriate for what the spell is supposed to be doing. Putting the activator for the effect together is no problem, but getting it to use that instead of SummonTargetFXActivator is proving to be beyond my meager programming skills. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can do that? scriptName AAHiveMoveActivatorScript extends ActiveMagicEffect ObjectReference Property YourSummonREF Auto ; An ObjectReference will also work with the summon function GlobalVariable Property aiStage Auto Event OnEffectStart(Actor akTarget, Actor akCaster) Summon(akCaster, YourSummonREF) EndEvent ; GetFormFromFile below to enable 'Global' flag Function Summon(ObjectReference akSummoner = None, ObjectReference akSummon = None, Float afDistance = 150.0, Float afZOffset = 0.0, ObjectReference arPortal = None, Int aiStage = 0) Global While aiStage < 6 aiStage += 1 If aiStage == 1 ; Shroud summon with portal arPortal = akSummon.PlaceAtMe(Game.GetFormFromFile(0x0007CD55, "Skyrim.ESM")) ; SummonTargetFXActivator disables and deletes itself shortly after stage 5 ElseIf aiStage == 2 ; Disable Summon akSummon.Disable() ElseIf aiStage == 3 ; Move portal in front of summoner arPortal.MoveTo(akSummoner, Math.Sin(akSummoner.GetAngleZ()) * afDistance, Math.Cos(akSummoner.GetAngleZ()) * afDistance, afZOffset) ElseIf aiStage == 4 ; Move summon to portal akSummon.MoveTo(arPortal) ElseIf aiStage == 5 ; Enable summon as the portal dissipates akSummon.Enable() EndIf Utility.Wait(0.6) EndWhile aiStage = 0 EndFunction

The idea is to have a 'door' that can be moved around- my basic intent is for this to be an 'entrance' to a space that the player can stick in their house even if they're using a custom one. The activator summoned by the spell does the teleportation when activated, and can be used without the spell. That part works perfectly. The problem is with the spell to move the activator to the player's location.

Nope. It was working fine the other day. Same drill. Tested it in several zones, quit game, tested again, saved, quit game, tested again, even rebooted my computer and went through the whole thing again. Worked fine. Today I decided to test it again before replying to your post, and it doesn't work. :confused: I'm not sure it's the script, actualy. The spell is set up as a self target script spell that lasts six seconds. When I was casting it and it worked I could see the spell effect listed on active effects, but now I don't see it. The spell doesn't seem to be 'hitting' for some reason, which would explain why it isn't triggering the script. Why the spell itself would just stop working like that I can't imagine. Edit: I just went and tweaked the settings of the spell (didn't touch the script) and now it works again. weird.

#1 No, I didn't. So I need to create a global to go along with the script? #2 That's a good point. I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to scripting. I'll try making a global and adding something to reset it to 0 at the end like you suggest and see what happens. Thanks for the tip! Edit: Okay. I tried adding a global and tacking on the aiStage == 0. That didn't do anything. Then I went in and added a duration to the spell, and it started working... Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it's changing the script that fixes it or changing the settings on the magic effect or the spell that does the trick. If that's the case, I can't even begin to imagine what I need to do to get this to work consistently. Everything else, if it works a few times when I first set it up it'll keep working, but with this I can't even say for sure that any fix I make will solve the issue since the issue always shoes up much latter on. I know this can be done, I've seen it done in other mods!

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Are you sure the weapons and armor are working right in game? Can you equip them on your character? If they are, make sure that the follower has the weapons in their inventory. Armor works best if you assign it as the default outfit. Creating an outfit: The outfits are under Items in the CK, right click and create new or edit an existing one. To add armor to it, drag and drop the armor into the window. To delete one, highlight and push delete. Assigning: It's assigned in the inventory tab (very top) on the NPC window. Ignore the 'sleep outfit', that isn't used. If the armor works correctly, your follower will wear it by default unless given something better in game. There's a lot of great info at http://www.creationkit.com/

I'm working on a mod that includes a zone that needs to be fairly easy to access. So that the player can set up the 'door' to the zone in whatever house they live in (or wherever), I set up activators that work like doors (player clicks one, it teleports him to the other and vice-versa). That part works like a charm. Then I set up one of the activators to teleport to the player when he casts a spell. It worked when I set it up, with no problems at all. Saved the game, went on to other parts of the mod, ect... Then during actual play testing the summon spell wouldn't work. I tweaked the code, fiddled with the spell settings, and it worked again. Tested it under several circumstances in several locations- everything was good. Then it stopped working. I got it working again. It stopped working. I fixed it. Stopped working... You get the idea. This is driving me crazy. It's like it only works when I change it, but then latter on it wont work at all. Anyone have any ideas what's causing this? How do I get a spell to reliably summon an activator? The code I'm currently using (I've changed it several times now, but I get the same problem) is modified from one off the Creation Kit wiki:

I have several meshes I want to use in a mod I'm making. They work perfectly in game- except that they don't have any collisions. Since some of them are floors and walls, that's a little bit of a problem. I've managed a few parts with similar collisions from other meshes, and collision planes added with the creation kit should cover still more, but there are several places where that just isn't working very well. I have nifutils and a couple different versions of chunkmerge, which should hypothetically fix that. Unfortunatly, no matter what I do or use as a template nifutils and chunk merge both crashe every time I run 'add collision'. Same goes for conversion. The only tool that doesn't crash is chunk extract, but that's pretty useless to me. There is no error other than 'a problem has caused this program to stop working'. I've tried running it as an admin, compatibility with windows 7 and 8, different versions of nifscope, and threatening my computer with a hammer, but nothing seems to work. Does anyone know how I can get nifutils to work, or know of a different way to set up collision shapes, particularly for oddly shaped interiors? I'm using windows 10, blender 2.49b, nifscope 1.13 & 1.2, and nifutil 1.2.2.978 Thanks. Edit: Ooookaaaay... After two days of jiggering with it I finally ask for help then go try it 'one more time'... and it worked... It WAS the templates I was using. All ten of them. For anyone running into a similar problem, try a rock for the template. blackreachcrystall02 was the one that worked for me. I'm leaving this here in case anyone else runs into this.

I figured it out. Sort of. I decided to go ahead and start deleting things to see what happened. The very first thing I deleted was a test cell I had left in because I'm still testing. The cell has no doors, or navmesh, or anything, but it does have several of the spider scroll spiders in residence, since my mod involves them. When I deleted that cell, the problem went away. I can't think of a way to prove this, but my guess would be that the spiders were being moved to my location just long enough to push me forward, but then were being moved back to the cell. Or maybe the game was calculating the physics before actually moving them, then couldn't move them because it couldn't figure out how to get them out of the test cell. Or something. Weirdness. Which raises a point- anyone have any idea how to make an npc- say, a spider, for example- either such a feather wight that it can't push the character and can be pushed out of the way easily? Or maybe a sort of selective collision, so they're solid to the rest of the world but go right through the player?

Good suggestion, but yeah, I checked that. They're still right where they're supposed to be. In fact, nothing in most of the cells where this is occurring is so much as in the same world space as any changes the mod has made. The only change the mod makes that should have ever loaded at this point in this game is a corpse I added to the torture chamber in Helgen Keep as a lore friendly way to provide a few non-modded items. After some experimenting, it seems like the character spawns in up against or very close to the nearest object with collision in a straight line from the door, or a certain distance, whichever comes first. It wouldn't bother me so much except that it's a mod I intend to share. If no one has any ideas what might be causing it I'll be stuck with deleting everything in my mod one at a time and testing in game.

Every time I go through a door that loads my character into a new area, I start out half way across the room, or well past the door when going outside. I just started a new game to test out a mod I'm making, and when I turn off the mod it seems to go away (more testing pending). The mod is fairly straight forward, not much scripting or anything. I saw the issue the first time when going through the first door in Helgen, and nothing in my mod should have been affecting the game at that point. I've searched all over the net to see if anyone else has encountered something similar, I've cleaned the mod with tes5edit and the creation kit and so on, but I can't figure out what might be causing this. Does anyone have a guess what it might be, or how to find out?

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I'm having a devil of a time figuring out how to write a script to do what I want. It's simple in concept, but everything I try has failed. I admit I'm very new to scripting. Basicaly, I have a spell with negative effects that I want to add an item, a faction and another spell, then be dispelled - all when the player sleeps. I'm attaching the script to the magic effect itself. Here's what I've got so far: I admit, I'm a newb at scripting. Anyone have any idea what it is I'm doing wrong? Edit: I got it to compile, but it still doesn't work. Nothing happens when I sleep. I updated the script with the one that compiled.

Well, if I don't need the 'conditional' I'll take it off. I'm still not quite clear on what it means, though. Something like being able to change the variable in another script, or something like that? Sorry if I'm missing something obvious... As for the activator issue, it's not a problem in the script, it's a problem with how I'm starting the quest. I'm activating it with an event node set up in the creation kit. It's some kind of limitation of the engine itself. The first item isn't in the quest script at all, and the quest doesn't start until the event node is triggered. Several of the vanilla quests start that way too. Here's the script- edited to remove spoilers :laugh: Doh! Obviously! I can't use a function that looks for a item to look for a form list! I can't believe that didn't occur to me, since I had to change the property to a form list property to set it in the quest... The script and quest have been tested all the way to the end at this point. Everything is working more or less the way I want it to (except that I still haven't gotten around to making an event node for using an activator). Thank you both very much for all the help!

Tested and working. Mostly. I tested getting multiple at once (no problem), whether or not they have one in their inventory at start (doesn't matter, they still have to pick it up; I'm considering leaving it that way as it makes more sense for the quest that they have to interact with the item), taking items from containers (works fine), and gathering the alchemical items from their respective flora (good to go). The two problems I've run into so far are: If they get the initial item from an activator (the bee, activator being the critter) it doesn't work. I can probably add another event node to handle that. The script doesn't seem able to use a form list- putting items in a list attached to the script does nothing. I can't tell if this is due to the item filter or the additem event. This doesn't much matter as I've changed my mind about one of the items anyway and wont need one, but it's important to note. Not yet tested: getting an item from a merchant; getting an item from a mining vein (relevant with only one of them); getting an item from a corpse (I assume it would work the same as getting it from a container); getting the whole list at once from a single container. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. All the digging I've done hasn't given me a clear idea what the difference is between 'auto' and 'auto conditional'- the creation kit wiki is not particularly helpful most of the time. I'm using 'auto conditional' because several of the quest scripts I've used to figure this out do. What little I've been able to puzzle out indicates that 'conditional' has to do with setting the property using the properties function in the creation kit or something like that... I'm not a programmer, at least not yet. :unsure:

I wouldn't say 'idiot', you just didn't notice :laugh: I'm not sure if changing the filter at each stage is a good idea or not, but along with the stage check it should cut down on chances that the script will return the wrong results at the wrong time. I'll Anyway, the script wouldn't compile as I posted it. The brackets after the GetOwningQuest turned out to be the problem. I opted to switch out the GetOwningQuest for a specific quest property- mostly because at first I though that was the problem. It compiled just fine after that (and I really should have compiled it before I posted. Oh well.)

Would this work? Note on the formatting: For some reason all the indents most people use make my eyes cross. This is much easier to read for me. Will it still work set up this way? In some game modding it seems to matter, in some it doesn't.

That makes sense. I'll make sure to include an inventory even filter so I don't gum up peoples games with pointless script activity. @IsharaMeridan That's pretty close to what I have managed to put together, but it clarifies several things for me. Thank you very much. @lofgren It doesn't really matter if they remove the items. The idea is that they are 'researching' a formula. Each stage identifies a component, and gives a hint at what the next component needs to be. Once they have everything identified, the player can see the recipe and finish the quest any time they like by making the item. I'll be 'locking' each stage as they go so they don't wind of changing stages every time they pick up one of the items. That would get a little annoying.

Thank you for the quick response! I'm sort of leaning towards #2 myself. A couple of questions- Why is the inventoryeventfilter needed, if you can set the onitemadded to a base object? Or am I missing something? I understand how to set up the onitemadded, but I'm a little fuzzy on what to do with the inventoryeventfilter. Where do I put this in relation to the rest of the script? Do you know of any scripts in the game or good example scripts that have a set up something like this? I'm better at assembling the pieces if I can look at an example. I'm not quite sure I follow your alternative suggestion. Sm event nodes only seem able to activate a quest, not the stages. In any case, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. At least no I have an idea of what I need research :thumbsup: