Adding Armor mod to NPC using Creation Kit

[MrDeftino]

Hey guys, I'm trying to create a short lore-friendly...ish Batman related quest. Firstly, I need to work out how to get my NPC I've made to actually be wearing the Batman armor. The armor I am using is this one by UNSCSpartin:

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=88139522

 

My question is what do I need to do in the creation kit in order to get my NPC - Batman - to wear that armor. I've created him as a Nord and everything is fine apart from he's not wearing the armor because I've no clue how to make him wear it. It's easy enough to get him to wear any other armor, just selecting it from the drop down box etc, but custom armors I've no idea.

 

Thanks in advance guys.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Mr Deftino

[rarborman]

You need to make an outfit, its a common oversight for those whom are newer to modding npcs.

 

Just search outfit in *all of your object window filter in ck.

[MrDeftino]

I should have mentioned, the mod that's downloaded came with an already made outfit including the batsuit items. I added that to the character and when I hit preview a whole bunch of errors came up, which I found out was to do with the models themselves (I think anyway). So I tried doing exactly the same thing with the Storm Lord armor mod. I added the outfit, hit preview and it worked fine in the Creation Kit, could see the armor on the NPC in the preview window. Loaded the game, NPC was naked.

 

So my issue now is... how do I get my NPC to not be naked haha.

[rarborman]

What?! I cant even fathom how you messed up outfits in such a manner.

 

Did you try loading up the game with the 'batman' outfit, errors and all, into skyrim to see if its even partially working?

 

Otherwise I have not enough information to form a reasonable hypothesis about what is going wrong here; maybe add some visual representations.

[MrDeftino]

Will upload some visuals when I get a chance tomorrow. But yes, the batman armour works fine for my character in-game. I can go to a forge and make it, wear it fine, the works. But when adding it to another NPC in Creation Kit it goes crazy. If I hit preview I get the whole bunch of errors then the preview window shows my NPCs head with a big ? underneath it. When I go in-game, the NPC is naked.

 

But as mentioned, I thought it may have been the mod playing up in CK, so I tried the same thing with the Storm Lord armor. I added the outfit that includes the Storm Lord Curiass, Boots and Gauntlets to the NPC, as well as putting each individual item into his inventory, for extra measure. When I hit preview I got a few errors, but it displayed my NPC wearing the Storm Lord armor, as it should. When I loaded it into the game however, same result. NPC was naked.

 

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I dno. But I appreciate you trying to help dude, keep it coming :D.

[rarborman]

Did you make sure your plugin for the outfit came after the armor mod in your load order, or was an edit of the armor mod, dirty edits are also something that can sometimes make what you see in the ck not be in game, as well the armor could be race specific and doesn't have tags for the npc's race to be able to wear it, also the red ! triangles are skyrim's error object and generally mean something is wrong with the mesh texture nif or so on and so forth; I'm just throwing things at the wall till I get some pictures.

 

Helping others mod is a hobby, since I've been stuck at the mesh editing wall for quite some time trying to figure out how to skin and bone an object; its about the only thing I got left that resembles modding anymore besides the random texture or premade mod edit; _{because I've already done everything in skyrim, dragonborn, dawnguard, hearthfire, guilds, bugs in jars, cleaning random loot out of caves, got all the daedric artifacts (even though steam was nice enough to not track that I actually did that), been to jail, murdered everyone who wasn't essential in a massive rampage, got married, adopted some random child I did not like, completed the civil war for both sides, was a man, a woman, a walking rug, a furry, a bat, a furry bat, a cat, an alligator, skills before they meant nothing but more perk points, then all the perks, I've gotten so much gold I don't bother picking it up or even looting it out chests or even looking at urns or gems or jewelry anymore, I've been though so much mods that I've seen too many overly complex or underwelmingly dull houses, nude models, dongs, clothes, repeat mods, sinkholes of time labeled as dungeons or quests, and simple retextures of the same meshes over and over.}

Sorry just venting for some reason... I should stop its not appropriate; and no one cares.

[MrDeftino]

Ok, here's the visuals. I'll quickly go through the process I do to try and make the NPC wear the armor.

 

Firstly: Open up CK and load Skyrim.esm, thedarkknight.esp (which is the armor mod) and finally, myBatman.esp (which is my quest mod) and make my quest mod the active file.

 

http://s13.postimg.org/v4uzs6d9f/Data_Loading.jpg

 

Then, I check to see if the armor has indeed been loaded:

 

http://s13.postimg.org/7rwy9nx5v/Batman_Armor_Loaded.jpg

 

We can see here that it has. Then I test the preview window by loading my NPC with a vanilla outfit and armor.

 

http://s13.postimg.org/65cc26ahv/Actor_with_Vanilla_Armor.jpg

 

Again, we can see here that it works fine. I then select the Batman armor outfit, that came with thedarkknight mod. Then, for extra measure, I drag the armor from the object window into the NPCs inventory.

 

http://s13.postimg.org/fr5wih1nn/Move_Armor_to_Inventory.jpg

 

However, when I drag the armor into his inventory or hit the preview button. I get the following errors for each armor item, I've only screenshotted the different kinds of errors, but they pop up for every piece of armor that is included in thedarkknight mod.

 

http://s13.postimg.org/oicxcqkyr/Inventory_Error.jpg

 

http://s13.postimg.org/dp0tqhear/Inventory_Erorr_2.jpg

 

http://s13.postimg.org/u1avg7smb/Inventory_Error_3.jpg

 

Then the preview window looks like this:

 

http://s13.postimg.org/5rb02kqeb/Preview_with_Bat_Armor.jpg

 

Ignoring this as I don't know what to do, I save and exit CK. (I've already placed the actor in Jorrvaskr previously). I then add myBatman.esp to the bottom of my load order with NMM.

 

http://s13.postimg.org/49pjr0lnn/Load_Order.jpg

 

Then, I go to Jorrvaskr in-game and am faced with this wannabe stripper:

 

http://s13.postimg.org/s8ck5mwtf/In_game.jpg

 

So that's the ins and outs of my issue.

 

It's cool to rant though, I can understand being a modder this is the best thing to try and ease your pain haha. I'm not a modder as such, but I have dabbled in modding a few games, but I can't code too well so I can't consider myself a serious modder.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Mr Deftino

[rarborman]

Try extracting the bsa with fo3a and make sure all the nifs are in data/mesh/armor/bat/m in loose version, and if that doesn't work your probably going to have to redirect the armor to point at them; this is because it seems to be unable to find the meshes in their current state, are you sure the armor can preview in its normal state?

[MrDeftino]

Try extracting the bsa with fo3a and make sure all the nifs are in data/mesh/armor/bat/m in loose version, and if that doesn't work your probably going to have to redirect the armor to point at them; this is because it seems to be unable to find the meshes in their current state, are you sure the armor can preview in its normal state?

I can't say for sure. But I did realize the error and I relinked the M version using the window that pops up, the one where you can change the weight, values etc of the armour. I noticed it was pointing at data/mesh/armor/bat/m, which doesn't exist. So i fixed those and I thought that would solve the problem. But yeah I'll try that fo3a thing and redirect it that way.

 

EDIT: Hmm, seem to be having some trouble locating FO3A. Any links you can give me dude?

 

EDIT 2: I believe I have found it. This is it right?

 

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/34/?tab=2&navtag=%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D34&pUp=1

 

EDIT 3: OK, I've used this and extracted all of the files in the dark knight.bsa. It's now in a directory in My Documents/The Dark Knight Mod/data/meshes/armor/bat/m/. I think the mesh part is the issue, but it has to say meshes, not mesh, as in the skyrim data directory all other mods I've installed use the mesh folder, not meshes. I've no idea how to repackage this or point the armor to another directory, again, any help is appreciated dude.

Edited September 3, 2013 by Mr Deftino

[MrDeftino]

Ok. I now have only 2 errors (technically 6, but it could be done with solving 2). I'm now using this mod for the armor, as the nif directories were much easier to fix.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23962/?

 

But I now only run into 2 errors. This is the first, this happens when I click the preview option when the outfit has been selected.

 

http://s21.postimg.org/4k1gpwxw3/Last_Error.jpg

 

Then HURRAY, BATMAN RENDERS WITH THE ARMOR ON!

 

http://s21.postimg.org/j4ijkqsur/Batman_Rendered.jpg

 

Then the last error I get if I save and re-open my mod file in CK is this:

 

http://s21.postimg.org/4604qbdsj/Last_Error_2.jpg

 

I presume that last error means that CK has forgotten where the outfit is? Or something along those lines. But I can go into my NPCs window again, add the armor, and I'll get the first error again, and it'll render fine again. Basically everything I mentioned can loop and loop. I think the first issue is simply a minor texture issue, as the outfit still renders regardless of it. The main issue is that CK seems to forget where the outfit is to call it to the NPC (I think), and that's why in-game he simply appears naked.

 

Also, the reason I said it's technically 6 errors is because if I add each individual item of the armor to the NPCs inventory, that being: Curiass, Gauntlets, Helm, Boots. I get an error for each when loading my mod back up in CK, exactly the same error as the missing outfit one, but instead of outfit for actor it says item for owner.

 

EDIT: I HAVE DONE IT. I followed a tutorial in a thread that basically showed me how to add in the armor files without my mod having to call upon it like a master esm file. To use my mod users will have to download the armor mod individually and then it'll work. I've been in game and everything works hunky dory. Thanks for your help :).

Edited September 4, 2013 by Mr Deftino