[LE] First impressions of Creation Kit and what I wish I knew before I started!

[bongodoctor]

Well bongodoctor. I use old HardDrives, SKSE64, 260 mods now but not big textures, as I use the performance textures, that was fixed to a proper size and also cleaned, after Bethesda faked them for SE, making them double sized by only rescaling them. I use an NVIDIA 730 or whatever, I cannot check it as I am not at home right now, it is not a bad GX Card, but it has only 4Gb RAM and I have 8Gb RAM in my computer. So maybe that is the issue, that I should get a GX card with 8Gb RAM and install 16Gb at my game comp? Oblivion starts so fast, Skyrim takes 5 min at least to start up.

Yep I think ram and the memory on the graphics card are the issue - as soon as I load 8GB of ram is taken up of the 16GB available - So doubling the ram on PC and video card would probably make everything run a lot faster :)

[greyday01]

There is unfortunately no way to lock pieces. I've wished that many times after accidentally moving something. Selecting a number it itemss with the control key held and the hitting the 1 key makes all those items invisible so you can't select them by accident. Helps when working in confined areas or when your view is blocked. F5 brings everything back.

[bongodoctor]

I have just finished creating the whole layout of my first mod with Creation Kit - links to screenshots below. What started out as just as simple player house has turned into small dungeon with three levels and I hope to add NPC's and quests etc so I learn to do all the aspects possible before I move onto a more ambitious project - probably an Island to explore etc. Having built all of the levels and carefully tested them in game to make sure there are no gaps or glitches (it was very tricky to check this in Creation Kit especially for the caves) the last step was to make sure the geography and compass directions made sense. I wanted to make sure that there were no Tardis effects were something that looked small on the outside was bigger on the inside and that the layout was physically feasible in the spaces implied. The compass bit was relatively easy - I used a North marker set at 195 degrees so that the direction inside and outside was identical, then I made sure the teleport markers were facing the way you would expect them to be upon transitioning - in other words you are facing away from a door after passing through it and still facing the lever in an elevator shaft after pulling it. In some mods this has not been done and I find it very confusing if I am turned around without realising it. I also made sure the exteriors lined up with what was behind them and the length of the hall inside the entrance matched its length on the outside etc. Now comes the hard bit of actually filling all the rooms with stuff. The top layer will still be a player house, the second layer the first part of the dungeon but with similar Dwemer themed content, the final layer will be a Falmer cavern landscape with geodes and ore nodes etc (In CK the layout looks very square and boxy but in game you can't perceive this at all - it all looks very organic and random). I am not sure how the performance will be once all of the items are included - going off the memory used size of my mod in CK the first two levels are about 25% of the size of larger vanilla interiors and the third level about 50% - so I am hoping I can get away with this without having to split them into any more separate cells with load doors etc. This is fairly simple anyway as you can just duplicate the interior and delete the bits you don't need from each interior.

 

Entrance https://ibb.co/tKD55TQ

Level 1 https://ibb.co/cDsSc8N

Level 2 https://ibb.co/crJJXxz

Level 3 https://ibb.co/j6MYmFj

Exit https://ibb.co/tXV6MDp

Edited July 9, 2022 by bongodoctor

[bongodoctor]

Thanks for the tip - I have used the hide technique to get items out of the way, but sometimes it isn't possible because I want to check the snapping between those two parts. Having piece locking would have been so useful once you main layout is finished. Just gonna keep a backup at each stage of development in case. Often I don't even realise I have moved something until I test in game - but getting better at controlling things - early days but thanks for all of the support and advice :)

There is unfortunately no way to lock pieces. I've wished that many times after accidentally moving something. Selecting a number it itemss with the control key held and the hitting the 1 key makes all those items invisible so you can't select them by accident. Helps when working in confined areas or when your view is blocked. F5 brings everything back.

[bongodoctor]

So this evening I have locked the main door to each of the three areas so they require a key, created three keys and three journals to give the player some idea of what to expect when they unlock the door. For now they are sat in an unlocked Dwemer chest right outside each door - later on the chests will be hidden somewhere so will require finding and require picking to get into - but for testing purposes having a chest outside the door works for now. As an added bonus I have added a skill point boost to each of the journals in skills that relate to the content of the books - smithing, enchanting and alchemy. The text of the books can be formatted using a markup code which allows two different styles, six different fonts as well as the usual bold, italic and underline etc - it is also possible to insert images - but these have to be in a specific format and location - so would be limited to existing in game images unless you create an image in that format and place it in the right place inside the game folder...

[bongodoctor]

Tonight I added an sentry guarding the exterior of the entrance and the dead skeleton remains of the last person who tried to enter. I have made sure the sentry is the same level as the player and placed a key on the sentry, as well as some lockpicks and a note on the skeleton. This way you can either try to sneak past the sentry and pick the lock, or tackle the sentry and get the key - so you have to do a little work to gain access to the building rather than being given it on a plate. There will also be similar options to get down to the two lower levels - a key and/or lock picking with gradually increasing difficulty. I also added a few trinkets to the sentry and the skeleton, nothing too outrageous but a few things help you get up and running... I have also now completed the three journals which are each stored with their relevant key - each recording how the settlement was set up and what happened leading up to it's abandonment...