Quick Questions, Quick Answers

[Valkasha]

SMIM > 2k, smim is such a great improvement to the small details like chains and stuff.

[EliteKhajiit]

So I'm wondering what some of you experienced scripters think about this. I've pretty much finished making a mod that converts Hillgrund's Tomb into a necromancer lair. It looks and feels like it should, but the issue is that the quest for that tomb requires that the player help a nord kill a necromancer that has taken over the tomb. Obviously, that is kind of contradictory to do if you yourself are a necromancer, so I'm looking at ways around that.

 

My idea is to write a script that gives the player the option to continue with the regular quest at the end, to kill the necromancer and help the nord, or to attack the nord and help the necromancer. The quest would have to be completed either way, and it would be ideal if the tomb was cleared as well. Also, the necromancer and the draugrs in the tomb would have to be friendly with the player if he/she chooses to kill the nord, but that isn't really an issue if the final battle isn't triggered, since they are not hostile until then.

 

So my question is, is this even possible to do in Skyrim, and is it unrealistic for someone with no scripting experience to figure this out? And does anyone have any suggestions for a mod that does something like this that I can look at?

[Valkasha]

Well to make them friendly to you, you have to add them to the player friendly faction and remove the nord from the player friendly faction or add the player to the necromancer friendly faction which should certainly be possible you'd just need a way to trigger that event.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Valkasha

[Mattiewagg]

So I'm wondering what some of you experienced scripters think about this. I've pretty much finished making a mod that converts Hillgrund's Tomb into a necromancer lair. It looks and feels like it should, but the issue is that the quest for that tomb requires that the player help a nord kill a necromancer that has taken over the tomb. Obviously, that is kind of contradictory to do if you yourself are a necromancer, so I'm looking at ways around that.

 

My idea is to write a script that gives the player the option to continue with the regular quest at the end, to kill the necromancer and help the nord, or to attack the nord and help the necromancer. The quest would have to be completed either way, and it would be ideal if the tomb was cleared as well. Also, the necromancer and the draugrs in the tomb would have to be friendly with the player if he/she chooses to kill the nord, but that isn't really an issue if the final battle isn't triggered, since they are not hostile until then.

 

So my question is, is this even possible to do in Skyrim, and is it unrealistic for someone with no scripting experience to figure this out? And does anyone have any suggestions for a mod that does something like this that I can look at?

 

It's not necessarily scripting. It's just adding a branching quest line, so it's more quest design than anything. The way quest design works is it's set up in a series of numbered stages, each with a "log entry" and a script fragment. The log entry is what you see in game on each stage, when you open your journal. To set the stages, you do a tiny bit of scripting in either dialogue, or on scripts on objects, that set the stage of the quest to the proper stage. You can also set a certain stage as Completes Quest, which finishes the quest. The way the quest line you're talking about goes is probably set up like this:

 

Quest Data - Start Game Enabled (quest starts without anything else starting it), Run Once (this is so it only runs once, or else it will run twice for some reason when it starts)

 

0 - You haven't started the quest.

10 - You've spoken to the questgiver, who asks you to kill the necromancer. Sets the stage to 10, with an "Objective" - the goal - to kill the necromancer, and a quest marker pointing to the necromancer.

20 - You've killed the necromancer - there is a script on the necromancer that, on the necromancer's death, will set the stage to 20. Completes the prior objective, and sets the new one to "go back to the questgiver".

30 - Completes quest. Spoke to the questgiver saying you killed the necromancer, get reward, and complete the prior objective.

 

Now you might want to add in a stage 25, 35 and 40, and have maybe dialogue set up so the necromancer can convince you to kill the questgiver, in which case it sets the stage to 25 instead of 20, with the objective to kill the questgiver instead. Then, with a similar script to the one on the necromancer, you put a OnDeath script on the questgiver that, once he dies, sets the stage to 35 to return to the necromancer, and then when you speak to the necromancer it sets the stage to a Complete Quest stage - 40.

 

That might sound complicated, but this tutorial should get you started, and I can provide assistance if need be.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah - you'd need to make the necromancer friendly so he can talk to you to initiate the dialogue, and if you refuse him and decide to kill him, then you can make him attack you in the end fragment (the linked tutorial will explain what that is) of the refusal dialogue with the code:

akSpeaker.StartCombat(Game.GetPlayer())

Edited August 15, 2014 by Matthiaswagg

[lofgren]

Therebis a vanilla quest whose name I forget where you are asked to help find a man's wife. At the end you have the option of killing him, killing her, or lying to him and sending him away. Maybe somebody else can remember the dungeon where the quest occurs? I would think that would provide a basic quest script for you to build on.

[Mattiewagg]

Therebis a vanilla quest whose name I forget where you are asked to help find a man's wife. At the end you have the option of killing him, killing her, or lying to him and sending him away. Maybe somebody else can remember the dungeon where the quest occurs? I would think that would provide a basic quest script for you to build on.

Yes. First you'll want to learn a bit about quest design (linked tutorial in my first post), but then look through some vanilla quests to get a feel for it, especially those that are similar to what you're looking for.

[Valkasha]

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mistwatch_(quest)

 

Pretty sure that's the quest you meant?

Edited August 15, 2014 by Valkasha

[EliteKhajiit]

Wow, thanks for all the info! I wasn't even planning to do a dialogue because I don't want to deal with custom voices, I was just going to have a message pop-up which basically told the player that they had to pick a side. But I might see what I can come up with because having it voiced would be so much cooler.

 

Another thing I'll have to do is to make the questgiver essential and remove the optional "protect him" quest until the option to side with him is selected.

 

I'll check out the tutorial and that quest. Should I use this thread for future questions on that, or make a new one?

Edited August 15, 2014 by EliteKhajiit

[Mattiewagg]

Wow, thanks for all the info! I wasn't even planning to do a dialogue because I don't want to deal with custom voices, I was just going to have a message pop-up which basically told the player that they had to pick a side. But I might see what I can come up with because having it voiced would be so much cooler.

 

Another thing I'll have to do is to make the questgiver essential and remove the optional "protect him" quest until the option to side with him is selected.

 

I'll check out the tutorial and that quest. Should I use this thread for future questions on that, or make a new one?

Depends. If it's a pretty quick question about an issue you're having, then just ask it here (hence Quick Questions, Quick Answers), but if it's a larger issue like a full tutorial on how to do it, then you can post your own topic.

 

And you don't need to have your own custom dialogue. You could have a messagebox pop up at a certain stage or when something happens (see Events), and then when a certain option is chosen in the messagebox it sets the appropriate stage.

[lofgren]

You could do unvoiced dialogue. I know it annoys some people but personally I play with the dialogue turned all the way down and the subtitles on. I regularly forget that there is voiced dialogue, until a Daedric lord speaks. Edited August 15, 2014 by lofgren