SSE Revising Wiki Nexus Tutorials? For Making a Trainer NPC?

[Gorgopis]

Hello,

 

This is only for those wanting to make NPC-trainer mods.

 

Backstory: We recently tried to make an NPC Trainer, following the Wiki Nexus Tutorial, and ran into some stumbling blocks, starting with the Dialoguetrainers quest.

 

We especially got stuck, because our new Trainer had our new dialogue labeled by our preferences-initials, but would not play any voice file, since a link between our new TIF and the existing vanilla TIF files did not exist, we guess?

 

So, after working to solve these tutorial difficulties, what we did next is copy the text from the Wiki, and paste it in below.

 

In some places, below, we mark what we still don't understand, and in other places we have revised Wiki text according to how we came to understand and solve our difficulties understanding that tutorial text.

 

If there are any errors in the understanding represented below, or in our revision, they are all clearly ours. Square brackets indicate our questions or extended revisions, while + signs indicate ordered steps from the Wiki.

 

For those not wanting to read any further, please note they can likely copy and paste the rest below, but only if they want to make a voiced trainer, with fewer time-costs that we encountered.

 

+++

 

 

+Adding training dialogue to your NPC:

Set your Mod's prefix for your intended spoken TIF files. First of all, [you may want to?] set the initials that you want the CK to put at the beginning of your Mod's new dialogue script file(s) (called a TIF, or a Topic Info Form). With this step, you can more easily identify the TIF files that belong to your mod and then you can find and package them if you want to redistribute the mod. [Or you can simply use existing Skryim TIF's if you use existing voices?]

Our Question: [Do you need to set any initials for scripts if you intend to use only existing voices and responses?]

+To set your unique mod's unique TIF initials, do the following:

[should your intended mod be already set to Active when setting the TIF initials?]

From the main CK menu select the option File -> Preferences ...

This will open a window. Navigate to the Scripts tab as shown in picture titled "Setting the prefix for the TIF files."

In the Fragment file prefix box enter up to 4 initials or up to 4 keyboard characters meaningful to you. You can enter up to 4 characters, including numbers. These characters you enter here will be transferred by the CK to the beginning of your new TIF files names.

[Please note, from now on, these initials set in the CK preferences will always appear at the beginning of ANY new dialogue lines you make for ANY Mod you work on after the current Mod. Therefore, if you want any new Mod to have its own initials for new dialogue lines, you will want to set these TIF initials-preferences for the new mod.]

In the example, I've entered ASH as the 3-letter prefix I want to use, which means that all my new dialogue TIF files will now read as follows: ASH_TIF_xxxx where the xxxx is an ID number automatically generated by the CK.

+Duplicate a dialogue line

Now you can add the training dialogue to your NPC. To do so, you have to edit the DialogueTrainers quest. This quest contains the dialogues of all trainers in game, including shared dialogues, and more unique ones.

+n the Object window expand the menu Character and select the menu item Quest. With your keyboard enter the word "trainers" (without the quotes) into the filter box at the top as shown in picture Dialogue Trainers quest: this will leave only two quests listed on the right side of the object window.

+Select the DialogueTrainers quest and double-click on it. A window will open, like the one shown in the picture titled "Duplicate dialogue."

Select with a left-mouse-click the Training Branch item in the narrower window on the left part of the screen, and you will see an ordered list of all trainers' dialogues now appear arrayed on the right in a wider dialogue responses window.

+ Now we are going to duplicate an existing dialogue:

[iMPORTANT NOTE about DialogueTrainers quest-ordering and How the CK and Skyrim are programmed to play out in-game dialogues:

The DialogueTrainers dialogues and responses that can be heard in-game during any quest-ordering work as follows:

The Creation Kit [skyrim?] accepts dialogue that can be said by YOUR NPC, and then the CK [skyrim?] reads from available lines from the response-list from TOP TO BOTTOM in the same order as that list appears arrayed in the right side large window of the CK DialogueTrainers Quest screen.

In short, your NPC's line in-game activates the game to scan for a suitable response, and when the game finds a line, any line, that responds to the one said by your NPC (it finds a line that fulfills the conditions set in the dialogue), it will stop looking for any other dialogue-response line

that may be listed lower/later as listed in the right-side CK window.

What that means is, if you want to add a trainer in Alchemy, and if you mistakenly leave your dialogue lines positioned in the right-side list so it appears AFTER earlier SHARED NPC dialogue lines that apply to ALL Alchemy trainers, (See the ones encircled at the top of the picture titled "Dialogue lines order"),

then your Trainer-NPC will say only those earlier-listed shared closing lines, instead of offering the new dialogue line you've just added. This occurs, because those closing dialogue lines only have as conditions that the NPC belongs to the JobTrainerFaction and the JobTrainerAlchemyFaction and nothing else.

To avoid this possible error and to make sure that your NPC will say the dialogue line you've added, you need to move your new dialog line for your NPC up the right-side window list to a higher-priority position. You can do this by left-mouse-clicking on your new dialogue in the right-side window, to highlight your new dialogue, and then you can use your keyboard's left arrow-key to move your dialogue line higher up the list, to a position on the list before the shared and listed responses. Note you can also use the right arrow keys to move your new dialogue down.]

+Select one of the dialogue lines on the right list.

Right click on it and select Copy from the pop-up menu. Wait until the CK has finished copying the dialogue line.

+Next step is to edit the duplicated dialogue line:

Select the new dialogue line:

Note: To distinguish the new dialogue line, check the Script Namebox, at the bottom right section of this window: the TIF name the CK has generated begins by the initials/characters you've entered in the Preferences window.

Double click on the new dialogue line and you'll see a window like the one shown in picture Edit dialogue. Here you should edit the following things:

Prompt: this is the text line that will appear when you talk to the trainer NPC in game. Put something

meaningful here that shows what is the skill he trains.

Conditions: this is the most important part to change. Change each one of the existing values by double clicking

on each of the lines. That will open a pop-up window where you can change the value of the condition.

GetBaseActorValue: select here the skill your trainer is going to teach (Marksman in the picture, as the trainer is going to teach Archery) and set the value to the maximum level your character can have to be trained by this NPC (in the example I've set it to be lower than 100 as my trainer can teach characters with Archery until level 99).

GetIsID: select here the ID of your NPC trainer.

GetInFaction: leave the first Faction check as it is (JobTrainerFaction).

GetInFaction: change the second Faction to the training skill faction you've given to your NPC (JobTrainerMarksmanFaction in the example in the picture).

+Once you've edited the dialogue, press OK to close this window and save changes. Then Press OK again to close the DialogueTrainers quest window.

+Add voice to the training dialogue

If you've followed the tutorial to this point, your character will be able of providing training services but he won't say a word when you ask about them. We are going to fix this now.

I am going to use one of the vanilla existing answers. If you want to add new custom dialogue to your training follow this tutorial: Voice Acting: A Complete Guide.

+Open again the dialogue window for your trainer (the window shown in picture Edit dialogue) and this time look for the Share response data box at the right top section, as shown in picture Select shared answer. Click on the arrow to see the drop-down list of available answers and choose one:

you can see the text of the answer displayed in the Response Text box, so you'll know what your trainer is saying. In the example, I've chosen a shared response that will make my trainer say "Of course" when you ask him for training services.

Next thing is to check if the response you've selected is available for your trainer voice: if you have assigned a voice to your trainer that doesn't have the sound record corresponding to the response you've chosen, he won't say a word. To check this: Click on the ... button at the right side of the response box: this will open a window like the one shown in picture Response window. Double click on the Response text (the line highlighted in picture Response window): this will open a window like the one shown in picture Available voices. Look at the box at the bottom of this window, you'll see there all the voices that can say this line in Skyrim:

The voice records are stored following this convention: Data\Sound\Voice\Skyrim.esm\"Voice type"\... , where voice type is the type of voice you can assign to your NPC. I've assigned my trainer the FemaleYoungEager voice type, so I've checked if that voice is available in the response I've chosen. I can see there is a Data\Sound\Voice\Skyrim.esm\FemaleYoungEager\... folder listed there, so that means that my trainer will be able to say that line. Note: If you don't see the voice type for your NPC in the list of available voice types, you can either select another response text that is available for your NPC voice or change your NPC's voice by selecting another voice in the Traits tab of the NPC window, as shown in picture Setting NPC Voice Type. Once you've checked the available voice types, press the Cancel button to close the window, then press the Cancel button again to close the Response window and return to your trainer Dialogue window. Press the Ok button to close the Dialogue window saving the changes, and press the OK button again to close the Dialogue quest window saving the changes you've made. Now your trainer should have say the response line you've chosen when asked for training services.

[Even if you've set preferences and initials for your unique TIFs??]

+Save the esp file.

+Clean the esp file

The CK will have modified the original dialogue line you were copying (it will have an * in front of its name as shown in picture Duplicate dialogue), and we don't want this unwanted edit to be included in our mod as it will prevent future Skyrim updates done to that line or other mods that edit that line to work. To fix this:

[FIRST make sure your Mod is set to Active, and that you have loaded all masters]. Then +Select the main menu option File -> Data ...

Now click on and select your esp file and press the Details ... button. This will open a window like the one shown in picture Cleaning the esp file. Select the line that contains the original dialogue and press the Delete key in your keyboard: you'll see that an I appears in front of that line, under the Ignored column: what this means is that when you load that esp file the CK will ignore that line in the esp file (but will not ignore the one in the master Skyrim.esm) and will not upload a second one from the original from your esp file. Then press the Close button to close the details window. Press the OK button and wait until the CK reloads your mod. Now edit something in your mod (like for example, changing your NPC class and putting the right class again): you need to do this or the CK won't save your esp file again as it will think there are no changes done. Save your esp file and it will be now saved without the unwanted edit. Test your plugin in game.

+Package your mod

If you want to redistribute your trainer mod you will need to include the following files:

your esp file (for example, MyTrainer.esp), the FaceGen meshes and textures files that fix your NPC's face color. These files will be located under the folders: \Data\meshes\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom\MyTrainer.esp\ & also under \Data\textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\MyTrainer.esp\

where MyTrainer.esp is the name of your esp file the dialogue TIF files, i.e. the files that begin by the 4 characters prefix you've used (ASH in the example) and that are located under the folders:

\Data\scripts\

\Data\scripts\source\

Edited July 19, 2022 by Gorgopis