[LE] I must find out the best solution to release my "mod"

[DavideMitra]

I'm going to release an independent minigame for Creation Engine, but it will still require Skyrim to launch because it uses some Skyrim resources. Once you're in the main menu, you must type "coc launchgame" and the minigame's main menu will appear.

So, you don't need to use "load game", "new game", "continue"...

 

You will say: "so? what's the problem?"

The minigame was originally created inside of a Skyrim conversion pack (everything was packed as a single esp). I tried to delete some content of the old conversion, but I can't delete everything because I altered lots of things.

The point is....you can't save your game in Skyrim when my esp is active: it does contain some undesired content and it did even alter some parts of Tamriel.

 

 

 

What should I do in order to force the player to avoid playing Skyrim when the minigame's esp is set as an active file?

 

MY POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS (the best is the first one):

 

1) Force a crash to desktop when clicking on "continue", "load game", "new game".

First of all, does a savegame become corrupted when game crashes while loading? I guess it doesn't.

My idea was to delete every original static object in the CK (only the minigame's static objects won't be deleted). I guess this should crash your game when you try to play Skyrim with my esp set as an active file.

 

2) Creating a script that will run once the Skyrim main menu does pop up. A script concept: if the minigame's esp has been set as an active file, the main menu buttons will be disabled, otherwise, they will not.

...I don't have the knowledge to do that!

 

3) Creating a script that will spawn a messagebox when loading/starting a new Skyrima adventure "danger! that specific esp has been set as an active file...please don't save your game"

...I don't have the knowledge to do that!

 

4) Editing the SWF file that controls the Skyrim menu buttons: worst solution, because each time you want to play Skyrim again, you must manually delete the altered SWF file from its specific folder.

Also, SWF files work only with Adobe Flash, which is obsolete and very vulnerable technology. I wasn't able to edit them because of this reason.

[NexusComa2]

Interesting. How would you handle the games auto saves ... Nothing you make should ever interfere with the game itself. Should be easy to do considering you can duplicate anything and create your own areas. You would have to disable save on wait, rest and travel. Maybe you could create a menu that covers the current menu or maybe just covers it. However you would still have hot key save/loads.
You'll need to figure out a way this will work without killing Skyrim.

Edited August 9, 2021 by NexusComa2

[DavideMitra]

Interesting. How would you handle the games auto saves ... Nothing you make should ever interfere with the game itself. Should be easy to do considering you can duplicate anything and create your own areas. You would have to disable save on wait, rest and travel. Maybe you could create a menu that covers the current menu or maybe just covers it. However you would still have hot key save/loads.

You'll need to figure out a way this will work without killing Skyrim.

Thank you for your point of view: I never use the autosave or save on load/travel etc features. So, I completely forgot about them. They are another problem that must not be underestimated. They would be also a pointless feature, because my videogame doesn't require the user to save his progresses.

 

Yours is a very good idea, but creating traditional menus is something that goes far behind my knowledge. My videogame main menu has been created with Skyrim invisible activators and doors, static objects, fx effects and custom music markers. This is the handcrafted menu

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OxXgjv7tvHJIkP1fxAIpEsgnpT_z0t56/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Yes, my game's content is separated from original Skyrim: it includes 3 NEW cells. The problem is that the content that interferes with Skyrim was part of a Skyrim total conversion. It's not my indie game itself who causes the problem.

 

Today, I tried to split up my game from the old total conversion.

I moved the 3 cells and the other generic content to a new esp file. It didn't work. The CK didn't recognize lots of things, even if they were successfully ported. So, half of my references were deleted by the CK when it was loading.

[NexusComa2]

After you set you esp as the active file did you also set skyrim.esp as a plug in (it also has a X in the box).
Right click the one you want as active and left click the mod(s) your mod will need data from as a plugin(s).

Load up your mod with Skyrim and the way you did that worked together. Then save the mod as a esp.

Now that esp is dependent on the Skyrim.esp and maybe the defualt.esp also. Or any other esp that data was used from

when you created you esp (mod). They should have all listed them self's on the far right column of the esp you saved itself.

This should auto load all the plugins ... so whatever shows up when you reload your mod (esp) as X's (a plugin used) leave that ...

Edited August 9, 2021 by NexusComa2

[DavideMitra]

Thank you, but it didn't work: everything in the tab window gets ported successfully and objects in the preview window show up correctly (meshes/texture paths are correct). But in the duplicated cells, only vanilla objects get ported. The other references get deleted and I can't avoid that.

 

 

I guess this is my only chance to save people from my old total conversion content:

1) Force a crash to desktop when clicking on "continue", "load game", "new game". 
First of all, does a savegame become corrupted when game crashes while loading? I guess it doesn't.
My idea was to delete every original static object in the CK (only the minigame's static objects won't be deleted). I guess this should crash your game when you try to play Skyrim with my esp set as an active file.

The problem, as you said, is save on travel and similar things. It could ruin the Skyrim savegames of people who is used to use the autosave feature. Hours and hours of adventure progresses...wasted by my videogame!!! :-(

 

Possible solutions:

- I could try to ask help to someone to create a script that will disable autosave when visiting my three minigame cells.

- I could just write anywhere "don't play the videogame without disabling autosave first"...but that would be risky

- I could write in the game's manual - installation section - to permanently disable autosave in the related ini...but nobody reads install instructions!

- EDIT: I could pack the SkyrimNexus archive and protect it with a password. When players download the archive, they will only be able to read a text file called PASSWORD. Inside there, I will write the password on bottom, but, first of all, I will warn people about autosaves

 

But - before doing that - I want to test by myself if a crash during game load could corrupt savegames. I guess it won't.

Other ideas?

Edited August 11, 2021 by DavideMitra

[NexusComa2]

If it was me I'd figure out a way the save wouldn't matter. If you don't want them to save then progress in your mini game must not be dependent on saving ...

That said this should also make it resettable. As in it self resets to the start every time it's entered.

[DavideMitra]

Very good news:

 

In the meantime, I successfully deleted the whole total conversion's content. It required some hours of work, but TES5Edit was a way easier tool than I thought.

Now I do have an esp only related to my indie videogame. And everything in Skyrim returned to vanilla. Now, someone could even leave my esp always active, because it virtually poses no threats to his savegames...except for the autosave feature, but I figured out how to force people to disable it.

 

The only remaining problem are some suspicious navmeshes around Tamriel.

My total conversion did contain a new-small worldspace...navmeshed, of course. But I've also found navmesh dirty edits around the TAMRIEL worldspace. And it wasn't me, because I didn't touch navmeshes outside of my custom worldspace. Should I delete these records?

 

______________________

 

There is no progress at all in my minigame. It's a modern basketball game based on Creation Engine's physics (a single player game set in an unknown US city suburb). When you leave and re-enter the cells, the only thing that changes is the ball's location (it stays where you did left it). But the basketball court is not that big and you can't lose your ball because of invisible barriers that wrap the arena borders. There are even invisible barriers in the sky. You can move around the court, but the bleachers are off limits...to you and to the ball.

 

There is a single bug that rarely happens (and the game manual explains how to 100% avoid it...very simple thing). In that case, a game reset works like this: return to the Skyrim main menu, then go back to the indie game's main menu (coc launchgame). Or exit from both games and reboot everything from the Skyrim Launcher. It's a very quick emergency operation that shouldn't be required at all

Edited August 11, 2021 by DavideMitra