Matth85

Nobody has "bailed". It's how thing works. When a game is new, the playerbase is huge, and all the modders return. The best mods are from people who modded Oblivion, and Morrowind before that. Then the game ages, and less people play it. Now it becomes impossible to hit top 100, so the biggest modders go out and do other things. Like working on games, or actually making money of their skills. Then a new game is released, and they come back. Why would any decent modder mod Skyrim these days? You will not get top 100, and 99% of all the people around have never modded, so they just yell at you and demand more from you. What one needs to do, is to find the people and PM them. For example, in Oblivion I started working on particle effects and animations, as a result of seing Midas beautiful magic effects. But nobody knew anything about particle effects, exporting them or how to make them work inside of Oblivion. Now, I could just cry on the forum, yell at the few people trying to help, or I could search google, and youtube, for people that knew what they did. I then found SaidenStorm, a genious when it came to that sort of things. He told me everything I wanted to know. Point is, most people are willing to help. Most people are also not checking the sub forums. Modders tend to hang out in the modders forum part, where all the mod users are unable to access. Why? because it's generally the same question asked every time around here, and all it takes is checking the wiki for information.

You can't "cheat" in a single player game. per definition, cheating means "gaining an unfair advantage". to have an advantage, you need some sort of competition. You need somebody, or something, to be ahead of. that said: yes and no. I use the console when something is bugged, when I tire of picking locks, when I get stuck and when I test mods. Anything else, no. If I want a ebony bow, I better hope i can find one soon. If I want a daedric sword, I better hope I can find one from chests. Do what you want. If you find the temptation too big, you might need to take a look at your willpower outside of games. Not that it matters. It is a game.

So, you got the story planned out, but nothing else? Again, that won't cut it. There seem to be an average of 3 "need a mod team!" per week. Yours is not unique, nor special. You need to sell your idea to the community and hope you can get somebody to help you out. If you don't do that, the only post you will get is the standard "I got no experience, but I am willing to help!", which then dissapears after a week. Here is a few things you can do, given you want it enough: 1) Start making things in the CK. You can not script or make quests? Well, then don't. Make everything else. That way you tell everybody "hey! I got almost everything set up! All I need is a genious scripter who can connect everything, and add some neat functions!". 2) If you want custom models, you get concept art. If you can't draw, get somebody else to do it. If nobody wants to do it, google something similiar. 3) You got a dungeon layout? Good! now take a overview picture of it. Basically, to get a team set up, you need to sell 2 things. You and your idea. If you don't show you are going to be the most dedicated, or do the most work, or that you don't believe in this the most, nobody else will believe you. At the same time, if your idea is not flushed out perfectly, and does not stand above the crowd, what makes it special? you see, ideas are not rare. Modders generally got more ideas than non-modders. Scripters are more oriented to solutions than the average joe, and the average modeller got more ideas, and moer understanding on how to do it, than your average joe. So the whole "I got this awesome idea!"-argument doesn't work. Everybody got ideas for huge mods. The difference is, however, that experienced modders know how long a big mod takes, while a new modder does not. While saying all of that, the modding community is not big at the moment, and will not grow again before a new TES or Fallout installement. The majority of people you will see around here are voice actors and fresh modders. Some times the odd experienced Ck worker will show up, or a decent 3d modeller. You will not be able to collect a team of "good", relative, modders. though you might get a couple of fresh modders, at which you'd might as well learn to script yourself. Who knows, you might even like it! Sell your idea. Sell yourself as a leading type. Show the community something. Visualize it. A picture of a dungeon proves more than 5 A4 pages of lore and story. And finally, know this: Modding takes a lot of time. Best of luck! Matth

That's not quite right. It's not that people are not helpful around here, it is that 99,8% of all modders are gone and will not re-surface untill another TES, eventually a new Fallout, title is announced, or even released. The "people here" are an average of 5 voice actors, 2 modellers, 1 scripter and 1000 mod users who have no experience about anything. If you actually find the people who knows stuff, and ask them, you get all the info you want. If you, however, ask in Mod talk, you are generally asking the same 4 modders, and the same 150 mod users, for help. If you got access to the real Modders forum, the one requiting 1000 unique downloads, you can get help from real modders. But yes, TESAlliance is a solid place for help. I have no love for the people over there, but i will not argue against the modding base over there.

As I tell everybody. There are 2 problems: 1) There are not enough modders left, with any kind of skill, for a "team". 2) All you got, and seem to want to contribute with, is vague storytelling. The kind you learn at the age of 5. To interest people, you need to have started something, and show you are dedicated. You need to know exactly what skillset you need.

I don't think there are any. Mostly because it makes very little sense to make such a thing. it serves no lore-purpose, or any Skyrim-related purpose. if you want such models, I fear you will have to get them yourself.

An extremely simple sword. No design, nothing interesting to catch on to. I doubt it would look very interesting in a fantasy-environment. That said, I can make it, or a few variants, when I get home in a couple of days. That is if nobody else does it by then.

yes. As long as you do not use any content directly from the fallout games, and everything is either inside Skyrim allready, or made from scratch, it is fine. that said, this is very, very ambitious. TES, and Fallout, games have an average of what, 6 year development time? With a full team of proffesionals with years of experience. The cost is more than you could imagine. Trying to re-create that is.. ill-adviced. It would take you a lifetime. You might say "But I already got the engine and some stuff to work with!". Which is true. But then it will be half-arsed at best. It would just be a big empty-world space inside Skyrim, which wouldn't resemble anything.

You need the correct folder structure. It depends what your mod consist of. Data --> Put your .esp/.esm here, and other folders you used. if you have put it any kind of custom content, such as scripts, meshes or textures, you add more folders to it. Data/textures Data/Meshes Now, if you want to upload a simple construction kit change, you simply need to upload the .esp. If the content you use are from another mod, your mod will require that mod to work. If you want yours to be stand-alone, given you got the permission, you can simply download the required mod again, then drag your .esp inside the data folder of that .rar file, which will overwrite it. in short: - Make a folder called Data. - Drop the .esp you have made changes to in your new folder(Data). - Right click it and make it to compressed .rar file. If you have made changes to the original .esp from the original mod author, and got permission to upload your version of it: - Get the original .rar. if you do not got it, download from the nexus manually. - Open it, and navigate into the "data" folder. - Drop your edited .esp into the .rar, overwritting the original .esp. Now, repeating myself. the first one is given you have used the original mod as a base, and yours is dependant on it. That must be specified while you upload your file. The latter one requires permission from the author, since you are pretty much taking his/her mod and publishing it with a small edit, under your name.

The animations and script are 95% of the work.

Make models from scratch. Easy enough.

Exporting asset is against the TOS. Doing it between different game studios is illegal. Last I checked, the asset from fable TLC are not free, nor royalty free.

You need what? expore?

Modding tool. bethesda releases modding tools, which allows people to mod without any problems, and gives us as much freedom as we can ask for, without actually exposing copyrighted asset or the source code. They release information and tutorials on their tools as well. that way anybody can mod it. Modding a game that does not release a modding tool, is usuaully against their ToS and it is extremely hard to do. You'd need programmers writing fluent code to be able to get anything done. Then there is the base of people. Majority of Skyrim modders modded oblivion, which most likely modded Morrowind. the biggest mods in Skyrim comes from people learning to mod during Oblivion. You don't get that in any other game. Again, because of modding tools.

The seam usually comes from the normal map, not the difuse map. Especially if the normal map uses a bad algorithm.

Do it yourself. Retexture the lightning texture. Takes you 10 min of googling to learn, and 5 more to do. And do not bump request threads. It will get it deleted. Oh, and don't demand things. We do not need to do, or answer, anything.

There are seams in every model. Thats what happens when you unwrap a 3d model to a 2d space. Some seams are hidden with luck, or a set of perfect UVWs with a consistent texture. Chances are that the texture get streched enough to cause a seam at the morph between 0 and 1 weight. This is all an educates guess though. I am not sure, since I have not checked it out personally.

Quality over quantity. The majority got all DLCs. Cater to the majority. Especially when that also means more quality.

Problem is, there is not enough modders for that these days. At best you will find 4-5 people that got any kind of modding ability around, and at best you get 1 of them to help you. Big project is something you do when a game is released, not when a game is old. So you are basically saying you are not going to do anything? You do know an idea is not copyrighted, and does not get you any credit at all. And don't tell me you are the writer either. the whole "I got a vague idea of how the story will look like" is the kind of storytelling a 5 year old does. You need to chip in more than anybody else. That is one of the quality of a leader, and since you want the project, you need to lead. If you want to be the story writer, you need to flush out every detail. and make sure it fits with the lore at every turn. You also need to have a good idea of who you need and what they need to do. A big project is not easy to do, and demands a lot of dedication. More than I think you know. From my own experience, 90% of all the projects never get past planning, and another 5% never get past first few months. The biggest reason is lack of dedication from the members, and lack of consistenty. If you get a modeller, but you have no idea how thing should look like, that guy leaves after a while. If you got a scripter, but got no idea what functions you need, that guy leaves.

You need: 1) Custom mesh for the fishing pole 2) Custom texture for the fishing pole 3) Custom animations for the fishing pole for 1sto - Optional: Custom animation for the fishing pole for 3rd person 4) Custom animation for the character to hold the fishing pole in 1st person - Optional: Custom animation for the character holding the fishing pole in 3rd person 5) Script that detects it is a fish able water withing the crosshair 6) Script that opens your inventory and add a fish, or object, based on a RNG factor. You would need to learn how to: 1) Create a mesh 2) Create a UVW and a texture for that mesh 3) Animate static objects 4) Animate humanoids 5) Learn to script functions such as: Detect that this is water, and there can be fish there (A puddle not connected to anything else can not sustain fish), a random chance you get a fish, play animations and open inventory. You'd most likely use FNIS and SKSE for this.

Ah, I see what you are going for! Hm... I'll do it. I just got to think of an efficient way to do it!

I actually suggest not modding. For starters, you get more "worth" out of the game. You can easily expand the life of the game by a couple hundred houres. Secondly, you avoid any kind of modding-issues that can cause game-breaking problems. Lastly, you get to enjoy the game as it was made, then you get to enjoy all the extra content modders make. The only thing I would suggest you to add, is SKyUI. Otherwise, you are rushing things unnecessarily.

Okay, The reason 2012 is hard to find, is because they stopped working active on the plugin after 2009/2010. 2011 and 2012 are not found as a "released" plugin, but as a "development" plugin. 2013, and most likely onward, is also not officially being worked on as far as I know. And yes, they do exist. I use 3ds max 2012, and have had the plugin since.. well.. 2012. Try to find the 2013 plugin and see if that works. Otherwise google it and search. It's there, under the development section in the Niftools plugin forums.

Google it, and you will find it pretty fast

EDIT: Currently working at Beyond Skyrim project. I am doing weapons for the Cyrodiil region. Hence I will not be very active here! That said, I might do help from time to time! Hello everyone! I am Matth, and if you have been around the Skyrim Mod Request and Mod Talk sub forums, you should know me. Heck, if if you visited the Oblivion forums the year before Skyrim was released, you'd remember my name. Now, I am a 3d artist. Well, I'd like to call myself that. I love making models fitting for RPGs. I especially enjoy making swords, since they allow for some really interesting designs. That said, I am stuck in my own comfort zone. I have no incentive to push beyond what I allready know. Which is partly why I am here, I have released a handful of mods over the years. From small rings, to big weapons. However, my mods have always been small, containing 1-2 models at most. This makes for poor mods, and that reflected in the little interest my mods have got. This is why I am changing my strategy here. Instead of trying to put my models as mods, making poor mods, I figure I can help out others with their mod, possibly turning a great mod even better! There are a few ground rules here. - I am not joining another "project" that never lifts off, or that have no idea what they want. Too many times have I joined as a 3d modeller, and I never get anything to work with. "Uh.. I got no concept artist, or no good way to explain what I want. But can you make a badass sword fitting the theme of the mod, which I also have no visual representation off, since I am a writer and it is all in my head? thanks!" - I am not doing Nifskope tweaks. You can do that yourself. - I am not doing extreme stuff. I am not making you a city from scratch. I can, however, make you a tileset. - My texturing skill is not on par with my modelling skills. Mind that! - I am learning anatomy as we speak, so that's something to be weary about. - I can't draw my own concept art(yet). So I need reference, or at least a good explained idea, of what to make. With an overall idea, I can sketch out different shapes and forms in Zbrush, and we can work from that. My little imageshack portfolio for reference; https://imageshack.com/user/matth80 Matth