How do I start making mods?

[mrnexusmods27]

I have playing skyrim with mods for a long time, and I have had so many ideas that I would like to put to use. The problem is I'm not really sure where to start. I watched the ck videos, but I still don't really know how to do the things I want to. Plus, I'm not sure if maybe it would be better to start small and build up by doing a specific type of mod first. Is there a certain thing that I should start with or should I just do what I want to do? Finally, do I need to know any programming languages like ruby, python or javascript?

[Mattiewagg]

You start small, and read the tutorials on the Creation Kit Wiki.

Skyrim comes with it's own programming language, Papyrus, and while far simpler than many programming languages, it takes a bit of time to learn it.

What type of mods are you interested in creating? What you need to know really depends on that.

 

There are a bunch of tutorials here, and some more Papyrus-based/quest design ones here, though if you go this page and scroll to the bottom of the original post you can find a lot of tutorials on level and quest design.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Matthiaswagg

[kibblesticks]

Like Matthiaswagg said, what do you want to do? "Making a mod" is pretty vague. There's some good tuts here to get you a good grounding. Hope you find what you're looking for.

[mrnexusmods27]

Right now I want to make mods for enemy ai like having enemies run away sometimes when yo shout, or are wearing daedric armor, or like making enemies more realistic when you are sneaking and shooting at them. I also would like to make it so what the game classifies as combat is changed, so that when there is a mudrab far away that wants to kill you it isn't classified as being in combat.

[Mattiewagg]

Right now I want to make mods for enemy ai like having enemies run away sometimes when yo shout, or are wearing daedric armor, or like making enemies more realistic when you are sneaking and shooting at them. I also would like to make it so what the game classifies as combat is changed, so that when there is a mudrab far away that wants to kill you it isn't classified as being in combat.

OnCombatStateChanged - is an event. If you don't know what an event is, you should start way smaller. Read the tutorials I linked.

 

AI Packages

 

Conditions

 

Quest Design - don't think this is important? It is. All dialogue is kept in a quest, whether or not there is an actual quest with it. Another example is a player alias - if you want to do something or run a script on the player, you never, ever put it on the player themselves. Only an alias of the player.

 

Don't know how the game classifies you as being in combat. But the Creation Kit Wiki is your friend. (And Google.)

 

Quick Questions, Quick Answers (and Skyrim Mod Talk is your friend, don't be afraid to post your questions - also the Creation Kit forums)

[mrnexusmods27]

Thanks for the links to start me out. Hopefully I'll be able to make the mods I want to.

[JetSteele]

Do what the others told you, those are good for getting you started. Personally I started off by making a scripting spell (I remember I didn't even know how to rotate the camera in CK, lol). I made so many mistakes along the way because I was too proud to read tutorials but eventually I learned the scripting language and everything just became so much easier to make after that.

 

What I suggest doing is looking at the tutorials and then making sort of like a dummy mod (only for your use) to practice what the tutorials talk about. I find the best way to learn something is to use it, just don't do what I did and figure everything out on your own because it is a huge time consumer and that time could be used to make the mod instead. Also make sure you understand what your doing before moving on to the next aspect of modding or it could get overwhelming for someone new to it.

 

Stick with modding and you will get better the more you do it, good luck on your mod.

 

To do what you want you will need to learn about:

 

1- Quests: everything important in game is run by quests

 

2- AI Packages: How an actor acts under a certain condition

 

3- Condition: The variable that needs to be filled for something to happen

 

Hope my spiel is somewhat helpful,

Good Luck!

[mastabenja]

i would say start with something small that you think is missing in the game/you want for your self and go from there. I started with this http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/56017/? because i could not find any mod that did it. It took me way to much time for how simple it is but i learned a lot. Youst google what ever you need to know if you get stuck and you will find more and good resources along the way.

 

I think this guy has some great vids https://www.youtube.com/user/DARKF0X127/playlists

I watched his script series probably 10 times for all the little things i couldnt figure out on my own. But thats because im more into scripting and not so much into moddeling. Just figure out what you wnat to do (a concrete idea). You can also do a "dummy" mod first. Lets say a mod that adds a teleport stone to whiterun that teleports you to riften or what ever with a little menu maybe?

 

if you are completly "noob" watch this quick video first (more on the moddeling site)

Edited August 25, 2014 by mastabenja