akm74 Posted June 16, 2024 Share Posted June 16, 2024 Can any skilled modder confirm if the following is achievable with the creation kit: Extending the "space sandbox" from planet level to system level, with random activities and encounters scattered throughout. This would necessitate a new method for implementing the "hyperdrive" or another non-instantaneous means of fast travel for ships. Enabling the hiring of mercenaries or assigning companions to pilot/escort in small fighter ships. I assume a hangar component would be required for this feature. If not, can it be achieved with unmanned drone fighter ships, up to four at least? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarannKiar Posted June 17, 2024 Share Posted June 17, 2024 On 6/16/2024 at 11:12 AM, akm74 said: Extending the "space sandbox" from planet level to system level, with random activities and encounters scattered throughout. This would necessitate a new method for implementing the "hyperdrive" or another non-instantaneous means of fast travel for ships. Repositioning planets and systems seem technically possible but I haven't tried. Altering planet data can make a mod very vulnerable to mod conflicts and may not be possible to do exclusively in the CK as certain system data have been hardcoded in game files as far as I remember. On 6/16/2024 at 11:12 AM, akm74 said: Enabling the hiring of mercenaries or assigning companions to pilot/escort in small fighter ships. I assume a hangar component would be required for this feature. If not, can it be achieved with unmanned drone fighter ships, up to four at least? Spaceships are based on Actor references so they have AI which, among others, has a FollowPlayer template. I doubt this project can actually be accomplished in the CK but I can't say for sure.. I'm sure that it'd take weeks to make such complex mod though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurreth Posted June 17, 2024 Share Posted June 17, 2024 29 minutes ago, LarannKiar said: Repositioning planets and systems seem technically possible but I haven't tried. Altering planet data can make a mod very vulnerable to mod conflicts and may not be possible to do exclusively in the CK as certain system data have been hardcoded in game files as far as I remember. Repositioning systems is easy, I do it all the time. Moving planets in a system is wonky because the game is more interested in planet order than actual orbits. And all planets, moons and stations are numbered, and those numbers are based on when the developers placed them, not any kind of logical system. You can have a planet numbered "3", and it's one moon, which logically should be "4", be numbered "13". What this means is if you want to add a new space station you have to crawl your way through every single orbiting body in the existing system to find out what the new number should be. And no, you can't turn a system into one large sandbox. Every planet has at least two, and usually three location records. A landable planet has location records for General, Surface and Orbit; a gas giant just has General and Orbit (it's flagged as "not landable" so it doesn't need a Surface record). So when you take off from a planet you transition from Surface to Orbit, and when you fly to another planet you transition from Orbit to new Orbit. As you move from one location record to another you get a load screen. That can't be changed because it is part of the fundamental structure of how the game works. Aaaaand it is one of the fundamental criticisms of the game, because No Man's Sky did this all seamlessly years before Starfield was released. Planet data CAN be altered, to a certain extent. The biggest block is editing the biom file, a file external to the ESM that controls how BIOM records are distributed on a planet surface. Prior to the CK you could copy and rename biom files to do something like cover a world in ocean using voliialpha.biom. I'm still working my way through the CK, seeing if proper editing is possible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akm74 Posted June 18, 2024 Author Share Posted June 18, 2024 (edited) 18 hours ago, LarannKiar said: Repositioning planets and systems seem technically possible but I haven't tried. Altering planet data can make a mod very vulnerable to mod conflicts and may not be possible to do exclusively in the CK as certain system data have been hardcoded in game files as far as I remember. Spaceships are based on Actor references so they have AI which, among others, has a FollowPlayer template. I doubt this project can actually be accomplished in the CK but I can't say for sure.. I'm sure that it'd take weeks to make such complex mod though. Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. I'm just not sure about the repositioning planets part. Do we really need it for what I'm looking for? Or is the system (at least as it is now) built with invisible walls between planets? I've never modded with creation kits before, so sorry if my question sounds stupid. >>> Sorry, I posted before I saw the second reply. Thank you for the information. So I guess it's only possible within single planets. Edited June 18, 2024 by akm74 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurreth Posted June 18, 2024 Share Posted June 18, 2024 (edited) Ya know I've never tried to give a star an Orbit location. Wonder if doing that would make it possible to fly to the actual star? Think I'll go try EDIT: Nope, doesn't change anything, can't do a flyby of a star Edited June 18, 2024 by aurreth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts