Final Fantasy VII mod

[MeguRyel]

Hi there,

 

I guess I'm not the first one starting up some FFVII stuff, I'm a big fan of the game and I think there are many elements that could be enriching for fallout 3, too... and I have lots of ideas but am still a noob to modding, so I hope I can find some help here.

 

First I need to make some items, NPCs and other stuff, I plan to put all into a quest one can follow once I have enough material. I'm getting used to blender, nifskope and some tools I found in the many tutorials so far, but I think I'm better in modelling and maybe texturing than in scripting... I'm sure I'll ask lots of questions somebody will kick my ass for :sweat:

 

I started creating a new race, copying the mesh headfemale.nif from the extracted mesh-file and importing it to blender. After modifying the shape a litte bit without deleting anything I got imported, I exported as cetraf.nif and tried to set it up with nifscope - I'm afraid I did something wrong there. I opened the headfemale.nif and my own file with nifscope and corrected the values of cetraf.nif to what I read in headfemale.nif exept for the texture files, for I had made a new one I wanted to use. In nifscope, everything looked just fine, and now I'm trying for hours to load it in geck.

 

I load the default fallout3.esm data and doublicate a race, caucasian I think. In face-gen tab I load the new mesh and it doesn't throw up any error, but the head shows up about one bodylengh above where the head shoud be. Has anybody got a clue what went wrong?

[MeguRyel]

Hm, I think I found the problem on nifscope but I don't know where this comes from. In TriShapeData when I open the vertices-dropdown, the z-value of the vertices are much too high. I guess it comes from exporting from blender? Maybe somebody could take a look here:

[MeguRyel]

Mh, got it. Now I can load it probarbly into the faceGenMenu and create the race. Looks like below, but in game she looks kind of old; I guess it's because there are more texture-files used for the face, not only the one I made, I just can't figure out what this could be... Of cause the next step is to provide some new hair and a male version.

 

I start the game now and find the new race there, but after character-generation the game crashes; I tried both copy and modifying an existing race and making up a new one, same problem. Maybe someone knows more and can tell me, or I'll need to put some more time on this problem later.

[MeguRyel]

It took me a while, now I'm updating my progress; and I have to apologize, my English is still poor. I'll do my very best though:

 

Finally I got two new races to work; but I'm using modified bodymeshes based on meshes by dimon99 and robert, so I'm waiting for their permisson before I upload anything.

 

Two new hairs with unique textures; sadly still no hair under hats but I'm working on it. You see them below.

 

While I was tinkering around the bodies, I had an idea about a new kind of body replacer allowing to choose from maybe three types. For example, there would be a Caucasian Slim Race, Caucasian Normal Race and a Caucasian Opulent race, each with same faces but with different body types. It would mean there have to be different clothing sizes, like S, M and L, and you can't wear a size that is not yours, but it would allow NPCs to have different body types. You think it's possible?

 

By now, I didn't replace all bodies but only the ones of my new races: Cetra and Al Bhed. For I'm a big fan of FF7 and 10 I'll concentrate on making hair and clothing from those games; but still, I don't like the stuff too shiny, so I'll try to make the textures more dirty and raggy. I also don't like too big weapons like Cloud's swords. I'll think of a more realistic version for that.

 

I'm putting in some future ideas here, and if you have any suggestions feel free to tell me. I'm better in modelling than in scripting etc.; girls like fancy clothes and hairs and shoes, you know. I'd really appreciate if anybody can help me out with scripting problems later.

 

 

Next step before releasing the mod for testing is making some more hair, male and female.

 

I want it to have a storyline, too: If you start with a cetra-character, it means your father is one, too.

 

Of course you don't know what happened and you'll be finding out piece by piece. Rough spoiler:

 

Years ago, a charismatic business man named Shinra sponsored the excavation of a genius scientist and archäologist, Dr. E. Gast, who had found traces of an ancient culture buried deep underground, never discovered by mankind before. They found the underground city Midgar, where a small group of Cetra lived for a long time, protecting some kind of secret and special technology. While Gast became friends with them, even married a Cetra woman and respected the secrets they didn't want to reveal, Shinra was inpatient and finally attacked the city. Most Cetra died - Gast and his wife were killed too, not so their son (who will be possibly a companion later). Your father was the only one who managed to escape, found friends, wife etc, you know the rest.

 

The aim is to create an undergrund town (with new meshes and textures, that's what I can do - for the rest I'll need help or a lot of time to learn ^.^°), NPCs around theat storyline and FF-objects. I like pretty outfits even if it's not so realistic; first equipment would be a materia, may be protection. Shouldn't be too difficult. For the female chars for example it could be a hair ribbon like Aerith's, holding one effect. I'll think of more later, or maybe someone has some ideas.

 

And I'm rather good in creating backgroud stories, but I'm not in making exciting scenarios. I appreciate every suggestion or idea.

[Callighan]

Though I'm not all too keen on the idea, your work looks great.

+1 encouragement from me.

[MeguRyel]

Yah, seems there aren't too many FF Maniacs around here ^.^° Maybe you like some parts of what I do, the quest is optional - if there's noone who like to play it, I won't make the effort to make it. We'll see, but thanks for teh encouragement :thanks:

 

Here are some concept drawings:

[gamejunkie1982]

Well i love FF also hudge fan and would love to see some mods for fallout and would love somone to make combat prober turn based that be awsom i allready use the FF gunsword and amor and would love to see more stuff.

[Callighan]

Megu, I suggest you concentrate on making the items and perhaps characters first and the story (if you do want to make quests of it) later. Then release them separately at first then together as a full pack once you get the quests done.

 

That way, some of us who like the characters and weapons have the option to play with them without getting involved in the whole plot. Releases such as Aerith or Yuffie (my favourite) companions are nice.

 

Although, I think a complicated Sepiroth boss battle against his many forms is also nice. As well as Weapons.

Wait. Come to think of it, fighting gigantic Weapons in the wasteland with companions or minions sound cool.

 

I'm sure there are dozens of FFVII fans out there who would welcome a FFVII mod. Although they may not be active in the boards and whatnot.

[MeguRyel]

That's a good idea, I think I'll do it that way. Aerith's hair is the next I'm doing ;)

 

But first, one more hair. It's more difficult than I thought to fit the female hair to a male head, and the alpha isn't as pretty as in nifscope... can I change the quality of the alpha somehow, or is that how it is?

[MeguRyel]

And the male: