RagingPigeon

I'm working on a mod right now that changes the outfitlist of a series of NPCs, and the outfitlist includes a sword, shield, bow, and arrows. I would like for the NPCs to all be carrying the sword and shield by default, and only switch to the bow as needed, and on a previous mod I made the NPCs all held the proper items...but currently, the NPCs are all carrying the bow and arrows, or just the sword, but never the shield. I'm assuming it has something to do with the combat style or class of the NPCs, but does anyone know the exact method for determining which items in their outfitlist they'll carry?

Thanks.

I've managed to figure out how to add recipes to preexisting smithing categories just fine, but how would I go about adding new categories? I haven't had much luck finding any way of doing it on my own by browsing the CK files.

Whenever I do that, though, I get an error saying failure to map parent node.

This is for two models that only have one skeleton NiNode each, the head NiNode (these are helmets). Here are my steps (after having confirmed meshes and textures for both models work in-game): - Open up both meshes in Nifskope. - Go to the second model, go the NiNode of the mesh I want to merge with the first model (in case it has multiple meshes), and [Copy-Branch] - Go to the main NiNode of the first mesh and [Paste-Branch] - In the main NiNode, add the pasted NiNode as a child - For the single skeleton item I do have, I'm not entirely sure what to do with it, though I've tried removing my extras, adding them all as children, etc, no luck - I usually go through all the spell optimizing stuff I'm assuming I'm missing something?

I've been trying to take two meshes and combine them in Nifskope to form a single mesh to be used in-game, and I've seen plenty of tutorials on how to do it for Oblivion where you just copy over one NiNode to another and make sure the parent/child links are correct...but I've tried that a dozen times, and while in Nifskope I get a mesh that looks right, when I use it in game I only ever see just one of the meshes. I've had proper textures mapped on each mesh every time, and each mesh works fine on its own, and sometimes I can even accurately see the two combined meshes in the Creation Kit when I'm picking a mesh for an armor add-on...but every single time, once I go in-game, boom, nothing. I know the meshes are technically there, because I was once using the Dragonborn's Iron Helmet, which has a "shades" node that casts a shadow around the players eyes, and I could see that shadow, but not the helmet itself. I'm thinking perhaps there's some special method for configuring the textures from withing the Creation Kit? If anyone's successfully merged two meshes in Nifskope and the CK I would greatly appreciate the help.

YESSSS, THANK YOU! That PDF tutorial had exactly what I needed! So much headbanging and the answer was so simple... Tip of the hat to you, sir (or madam).

Between nifskope and GIMP I'm trying to make parts of the iron helmet (as worn by the dragonborn in trailers) transparent, but I'm struggling to figure out how exactly to do that =P. I've messed around with alpha layers in GIMP (setting it to black and erasing the parts I want transparent), niAlphaShader (I copied it over from another mesh, and the shader properties that have to do with getting the eye holes transparent on the helmet, but to no avail. I was wondering if someone could go through a working process to make get some transparency worked into the iron helmet?

I've got two incredibly infuriating problems right now; I have one mod out on the Steam Workshop, and in it I've got a hood and cuirass that, when I test it using the files I have loaded on just my machine (Data/textures and Data/meshes), the hood and cuirass work just fine with any gender and any race. I had multiple complaints on the workshop site though, that the hood wouldn't work for non-humans (the hood is invisible) and the cuirass wouldn't work for females (again, it would just be invisible, though in this case it renders the whole body invisible). I couldn't get this issue to show up on any of my characters, so I removed all traces of the mod locally from my Data folder and downloaded my own mod, and sure enough, the complaints were accurate. So, my issue is that when the Creation Kit archives and uploads the files used for the mod, it's simply not archiving them right or skipping some or something. Does anyone recognize this issue and can offer me a solution? The second issue is I'm working on another mod where I combined two models using nifskope, and I can see the two models just as they're supposed to appear in nifskope, and I can load them into the Creation Kit and they appear fine in the preview window (though one of the two models is slightly translated). When I go to wear the combined model in-game though, one of the models in the combined model doesn't show up. So again, how is the Creation Kit able to see something just fine, but then in-game, it breaks? Any help would be greatly appreciated.