fnv Advice on creating a "fetch" quest

[MrPebbles1961]

UPDATE

Okay, combining what I know with the suggestions here, I finally managed to make this work, though not in quite the best way, I'm sure.

1. Since the holodisk was a note and I couldn't attach a script to it, I created an activator holodisk, replaced the note holodisk with it, edited the activator script to place the note into the player's inventory, display a message suggesting the player read the note, then disable/markfordelete the activator disk.
2. Once the player reads the note, a script sets the quest stage to 10, the quest begins, and the player is directed to Goodsprings Cave.
3. When the player arrives at the outside entrance to the cave, a script triggers sets the quest stage to 20 and the player is directed to enter the cave and search for the keycard.
4. When the keycard (found partly under the body of the dead NPC) is picked up, a script sets the quest stage to 30 and the player is directed back to Goodsprings to unlock the entrance to the home.
5. When the player unlocks the entrance, a script sets the quest stage to 40, the player is congratulated on their new home, given 250xp, and the quest ends.
6. OPTIONAL THINGS TO DO?
   • Have the final stage script remove the keycard from the player's inventory or, at least, remove its Quest Item status so they can put it in a container or display it or whatever.
     • (Frankly, I hate having so many items that I can't remove from my inventory, so figuring out how to script the quest status off is probably the best way to go. Maybe have the final stage script remove the Quest keycard and replace it with a plain one?)
   • Insert a quest stage just after the keycard is found on the very unlikely chance the player finds the keycard before the bunker entrance.

My quest ended up being a mix of scripts and the quest interface. The scripts looked for the conditions and set the stages, and the interface completed the stages, displayed the objectives, provided the XP, and ended the quest. But I'm under the impression that fewer scripts is better and that I could have done more of it in the interface. I just couldn't make it work. I looked through several quests from the base game and DLCs and couldn't find any that worked that way. Of course, the vast majority of quests seem to work through dialogue with NPCs, which is probably why it was hard to find existing quests or tutorials online.

So anyway, it works, through I'm sure I'll keep poking at it. Thank you @madmongo, @laclongquan, and @Pellape for all your help!

[MrPebbles1961]

@laclongquan

Quote

Note: try not to use bodies of NPC or creatures as containers of your quest-set items.

Thanks, that's good to know! At the time I couldn't figure out how to script it if taken from the body, so I just placed it on the ground partway under the body so it looks like it fell out of their pocket. But this is good info for the future.

[Pellape]

@MrPebbles1961Then it is odd that I could find the key, as I do use auto-loot and that one sucks up all keys it finds, well maybe the key must be in the form in that mod by the way...  I did not look for a key honestly as I looked for the body, but now the key is beside it?  In the other hand, when I looked at the mod in GECK, it was inside the body, not next to it.

The quest as you describes it looks perfect. Well done.

When it comes to keys, does they do not get inside the keyring?  But you are right, just add a removeitem to it as it is no longer needed. Locking the door? I have never figured out how to lock doors and I have tried it, but always failed it. We can use a command called Lock, but it does not lock anything.

Do take a look at your other thread as I just made a detailed suggestion there. 

Edited November 1 by Pellape

[MrPebbles1961]

@Pellape The mod I put up for testing hasn't been updated. I need to do that.

The keycard is under the body, poking out from under the right side. It'll be easier to move her, then take the key.

I'll update the post and the files ASAP.

[Pellape]

@MrPebbles1961That sounds good. i test it as soon as you get the new file up. Did you do something about the noise, or do i have to do it without sound? 

It is not my call to tell you to put out the sound, just a wish as if you like it, just keep it as it is.    It is your mod, do not forget that. Your rules.

If the sound is in the cell it self, then I do not know how to stop it. If it is in a sound form added into the cell, it can be disabled and enabled with this script:

scn PebToggleSoundSwithSCR

Short ToggleSound

begin onactivate

	If (ToggleSound == 0)
		Soundref.enable
		Set ToggleSound to 1
	else
		Soundref.disable
		Set ToggleSound to 0 
	EndIf

End

Put that script at a light Switch and everyone can choose to listen to it or turn it off. Do edit the Soundref name, to be exact the same as your Soundref, inside your cell if there is any but as the sound did start during the port into the cell, i do guess it is the cell itself that had or rather have that sound. But you can move it to a sound form instead and put that form, next to the machine that is making that noise and by doing that, it will also sound more realistic, as the sound will amplify when you walk towards it, and be less bright when you walk away from it. now it is a constant mess in the players ears and we cannot locate the source. The way this script is made, the sound is ON by default and it will change, when you walk inside the cell instead, which is MUCH MUCH cooler.

If you have no machine added, as I could not see one, as i did look for one, add one, as that would had been so cool. No one knows what it is for, or how to use it, just that it is there, making a bloody noise, which makes perfect sense or none at all rather. The machine it self can be the switch, as an activator, so you only use a static, load that NIF inside that static inside an activator or use an invisible activator around the machine, your call.    If you want me to add it, just say so and also where to put it, but you learn more by doing it your self.

Edited November 2 by Pellape

[MrPebbles1961]

@Pellape & @laclongquan

I apologize for not responding sooner. Nexus doesn't tell me when I have replies.

Thanks for all the positive comments and suggested changes! It's an awful lot to take in, though, so just a couple of updates:

• The ambient sound: That was an error. As a sound designer, I'm very meticulous about balancing my soundscapes. That sound is from a console in the Power & Systems Room that I balanced with the others in the room and gave the same attenuation radii. Very little of any of those sounds should be heard beyond the outside of the door. But the next time I came back, it was super loud and spread throughout the whole bunker. I attempted all sorts of adjustments, but nothing would fix it. So, for now, it's been removed. I'm trying to decide if I want to try deleting the entire console and sound, then recreating them or just leaving it out.
• The quest: The keycard is now underneath the body in the cave instead of in the inventory. I also double checked and everything I added to the cave: the body, the extra dead coyotes, the keycard, and the laser pistol are all Persistent References, so I'm unsure why the body disappeared. I also updated the quest so that, if someone goes to the cave before finding the bunker hatch in Goodsprings, it goes to a different quest stage and the player gets a message telling them to search GS for something the key might open.
• The lighting: I'll look at lowering the radii of the lights to help bring out the colors more and make it just a little gloomier.

NOTE: Sadly, it's been about a month since I reached out to the creator of the original mod I based this on (and the layout of the Living Quarters whose design I mostly kept) and I have yet to hear from them. So I'm going to have to rearrange the sections of that room so it's less like theirs (though I still plan to credit them for the original, of course). I have backups of this layout, so it's not going anywhere.

[Pellape]

@MrPebbles1961You have an option at the top of each thread on the right side, a button to click called [follow] with different options. One is email. The bell above that button, just below the forum banner is a bell. Keep an eye at the bell. If you inlude an @someone, a bell will show that someone that a new reply or a new message is available. If I where you, I would click the follow button in your 2 threads all all threads you want to follow.

Good. We do learn new stuff every day. So what did the author really type at their description about permissions in the first place?  I have never been told by all authors I have asked, to not be able to use their assets, if I wanted to use them, but not all will answer. When we do send them a PM. a message will pop up in their email box. I will send you one now for test. Do look in your junkmail and all tabs in your email.

Edited November 3 by Pellape

[MrPebbles1961]

@Pellape Thanks for the info. I think I've got the notifications set right now.

The creator of the mod specified specified asking for permission. Pretty much the layout of where things are in the Living Quarters is the same (maybe 90%?), but almost none of the actual objects are the same. Still, it's based on their layout and they might find it similar enough to complain, so I feel like I should get their permission.

[Pellape]

@MrPebbles1961As I see it, you have 2 options but first I want to mention, that we do learn modding by watching how other modder's and also the game designers did made their stuff. I always set one manual permission, if I do not forget it that it is and if I did not credit someone else and that is: Do what ye want and see this as a free assert and I also make or rather made a lot of 3D stuff, until I went into the 3D wall, got 3D burned out last December. I still hate to make 3D...     But that is not the point. My opinion is that a mod author do not own a sh't as it is Bethesda and Obsidian in this case that owns it. But a painting, who owns it? The painter or those that made the canvas and the colors and the microorganisms that made the oil 70 million years ago?    Am I good with 3D, I think so and so I was told by my teacher as well. I did made 3 simple models for F4 a couple of months back and I will again if I want something.

Back on track: You made so many changes that it is no longer anyone else's assert than yours, but do what feels best for you.

1. If you publish it without any credits, who will blame you for doing that? The so called author is not active any longer and will not give a damn.
2. You can publish it and credit the author and pretend it rains.

The thing is that Nexus now will keep their eyes at your choice, when you typed about it. If you had not done that, then no one would ever complain. Still, as with all the changes you made, it is now your assert, no doubt about it. If someone tell Nexus to keep an eye at these messages, they will do it. Nexus do take author rights extremely serious, no doubt. No matter what, do not be afraid doing it. You will not loose your account, but the assert can be hidden for further investigations but that is extremely rare.

Many modder's takes or rather copy complete cells from Bethesda and Obsidion, remake them some and include them in their assert, which is more common than making new cells, new designs from Scratch as that is extremely tidious, just look at my old Caldera Ancient Mine for Morrowind 2006, remade and bug fixed 2020, that was made from scratch, every single bit and every single object used single forms but it also took me 2 years to make it. Time is also an important issue, do we want something to look good and unique? The video the 10 best Morrowind dungeons from 2017, did mention my dungeon and if it was not for the bugs, he claimed it will be among the 10 best.

I will never learn to keep my self on topic     Still I do hope you like the video, as I sure do. I am Pekka, Pekkape and now Pellape, by mistake really as I misspelled it when I made it, so he calls me by my real nickname and old modding name, Pekka. I cannot login to that old account since 2013. Google find a lot of old stuff if you search for Pekka morrowind or Pekka Oblivion. 

This was my first mod I started to make 2004 with CS but maybe my best too, until 2020 at least.

 

Well the point is: Should it really take 2 years to make a mod? Was it fun? No way, it was at first, in the other hand, I could not stop making it, but I sure took several breaks, making other stuff and a lot of team stuff too and then back again, having boring but the result really impress me too, not only the video Author. I did learn a lot during this journey, added 2 elevators, the spiral staircase, turned cells upside down and on its side, made it look extremely unique. The thing is, the ambient color was the first thing that I made    I knew what I wanted to make before I even started with it.    2020 I also fixed the pathing, NAV-meshing

If I do something similar today, to save time, I would just copy a cell, make some changes but as a player, seeing this, makes me sad. I do want unique layouts and feel that when I enter a new cell, it should look new and something I have never seen before, specially when I am exploring.

The video author is also a bloody Britt and I am a bloody Swede. He should not expect me to write perfect English and that did piss me off when he said so in that video. My English is almost perfect today, I guess, as I did train English now for 20 years after I did write the dialogues for that mod. I did send him my comments, which he have not responded to. I did send him about my bugfixes and also fixes of the grammar and the whole dialogue as well. He have other of my stuff and mods in other videos as well, and there he do not complain at least.    I made some retextures as well for Morrowind and also Oblivon, well produced stuff for 6 years straight in a row. Most of it gone forever, uploaded else where, to sites no longer available.    So much stuff from so many talented modder's are gone.    Replaying Morrowind is not fun when I cannot find my favorite mods.

How was the common quality of most stuff made by the modder's between 2004-2010, compared with the stuff today?  I must say, extremely good, as good as it was possible to make it back then, 2006 even 2K textures popped up, in highest quality, not that I could use them , but still. I could make a long list, but I stop there.    I do not think most visitors here are interested of that any way really.    When I claim this, I also have Skyrim and F4 in mind.

Is it the best dungeon ever made?

It is hard to compare that old dungeon with new ones, in new games but when I think about it, it is maybe the funniest dungeon I have ever been in and I see this video ones a month or so still, which is the only dungeon I do get back to all the time, with that video. It is also the hardest dungeon I ever played in and that was also a goal, to really make it hard, so damn hard that my lvl 160 Morrowind char had problems in it. It is maybe the most beautiful dungeon I ever seen, and that was also a goal I had, to really make it look as good as possible and unique as possible and I have never seen anything like it myself. I could have added more stuff to it. I could spend 10 more years adding stuff there, but I had to stop somewhere, 1 single week until Oblivion was released.    That sure made me work hard in the end, like a fire torsch up in my rear end, Oblivion. I did not go back to this dungeon again until 2020. Being away from it in 14 years and I loved going back to it, and make it better and that was fun, my funniest and best moment in that place. I can stay there forever really.    I have never spent more time in any dungeon than this one, beta testing it, playing it through multiple times, make changes, adding more stuff, going back, replay it again. The Video author said it took him 4-5 hours to play it, which did surprised me as I never timed it myself. I do know it took long time to get from the start, to the end, but 5 hours? 

I sure took water over my head, almost got me burned out.

Caldera is also my favorite city in Morrowind, why? I do not know, I do remember when I got to it the first time, damn I like it, a lot, maybe because it do remind me about how our old med eval cities used to look like? I do love to walk in the Old City of Aahrhus in Denmark, which has the same building designs. The dungeon is part of that town, Caldera and the quest for it also starts there. I was soooo disappointed in ESO, when I got to the spot where the town Caldera later was built, as it was just a volcanic Caldera, with a boss monster, nothing else. Caldera is an Imperial city and in ESO, the Imperials had not invaded Morrowind yet, as that is 200 years back in time from the game Morrowind. The city of Vivec is not finished as it is under construction and so on. Here I am outside the city of Vivec in 2020, in the old game Morrowind and it sure looks amazing with the latest graphic enhancers and graphic cards on a modern computer. Vivec is among the biggest cities Bethesda have ever made for TES, Daggerfall not included as those where HUUUGE, to big, took ages to just run passed one, with not much content, just building after building and random quests maybe here and there, random for every player, never the same, Except MQ.

 

Edited November 4 by Pellape

[Pellape]

  

@MrPebbles1961Daggerfall? The latest Unity Daggerfall, fully modded looks amazing and it is freeware, so is Daggerfall these days that you must install separate. I loved to play it again 2020. Damn that was good, well it was fun a couple of weeks at least.  A fun break. I hate the dungeons though, they are too big, to twisted, and makes me just furious and frustrated.    I do cheat there with the console, mostly, and that is not fun. Still fun to test it as it all started there, it made Bethesda rich, from almost being bankrupted, well Morrowind did save Bethesda really from being bankrupted. Well NM that now...  I did love Daggerfall 1996-1998. Daggerfall was unique at the time, a step forward in game development, from DOOM or The nazimod before DOOM, where you killed loads of nazis, which was the first 3D shoot'n'up ever made. Forgot its name now. Ahhh, yes, Wolfenstein 3D!!

If you see the video and hear sounds from monsters, it is likely Tod Howard that made them, his voice, like rats and so on, he was the rat and it is his voice doing them and he had fun making them too and he sure laughed in a video, telling all this and he said it was extremely fun making them. He is not a game maker, just a producer, but still, very famous or infamous too. Do we like him or hate him, well, everyone have an opinion about him for sure.

Latest mods 2023 - I love this.     I can only say...  WOW - If the dungeons was easier to play, I would have played it again.

By the way, now I know why I love the city of Caldera in Morrowind. It reminds me of the cities in the game Daggerfall. 

 

 

Edited November 4 by Pellape