Weapon/Armor Help

[delishushpastry]

I've been looking at and downloading mods for quite a while now, and until a few days ago I have very pleased with the mods I have downloaded and installed. Recently however, I have been wanted more from my weapons and armor than just having them be thrown in a chest somewhere or even knowing exactly where to get them through a quest. I've been thinking about placing them into the leveled lists and balancing their stats to match what level they begin to show at. I've also been thinking about taking the mods that I have and re-texturing the default weapons. I don't know how to use the construction set very well but I understand how to change the values of attack/weight/speed for each weapon. That is about as far as my knowledge extends. I know there are mods out there that add weapons to leveled lists (ex. Real Swords) and I have even seen a few that replace the textures on the default weapons (Elven weapons only from what I've seen). I don't know how they work or what they edit to change the edit the leveled lists. A tutorial or even just a basic outline of what I need to do would be appreciated, because right now I have absolutely no idea where to start. I can pick up on things rather quickly and even if I don't get it right the first few times I can try again. Thank you =).

[Ranokoa]

When you look at the stats of the weapons and armor I am sure that you have seen two directory buttons that say something like Object and World Object.

 

These are the .NIF files. Nif files are, quite simply, the weapon. And linking the statistics from the CS to the weapon makes the actual, visible, and usable weapon linked to the game.

 

A .NIF file is from NifSkope, a program, which is free, that tells the game HOW to handle that 3d object. It will tell the game whether it is a weapon, a piece of armor, a static object, or whatever. It will tell the game what sound it makes when it makes contact with other material, where to put the hands, and if the item can be used with 2 hands or one.

 

I'm going backwards a tiny bit... I'll reverse.

 

Blender is a program, like 3d max but free, that creates 3d objects. The shape, the size, and nothing else, really.

 

Photoshop, or its free equivalent, Gimp Shop (which can be downloaded at the Nexus) deals with "textures" or basically all the pretty colors. A silver longsword is only silver because of Photoshop or Gimp. Without texturing the item it would be a hunk of bright purple sword shaped metal.

 

The texture is applied to the weapon and then imported to NifSkope where it is told how to be handled by the game.

 

The .Nif file created that is the combination of all 3 program's work is put into the Meshes folder, and the textures for that weapon in the Textures folder in the Oblivion/Data directory, where, in the CS, you can tell a new, or already existent item to search for it, thus either replacing or creating the weapon or armor or apple or blow-up doll for those who feel that for some reason a blow-up doll belongs in Cyrodiil.

 

Although it can take days or weeks to learn how to do 3d modeling in its entirety, it can take months to gather any experience that allows your item to resemble its intended resemblance and not what the bear left behind the bushes before it noticed you and tried to turn you into what it left behind the bushes.

 

There are many tutorials out there to teach you, step by step, the simplest way of handling all 3 programs and more in depth detail on how they relate to eachother and the game.

 

Here is the tutorial for making your first 3d object, which will be utterly useless for you in game, but the process it made you go through that teaches you how to make that utterly useless item is invaluable. It will be annoyingly long, questionably complex, and munificently informative.

 

You will more than likely have several questions right after reading 5% of all tutorials, I beg you search the Wiki for answers first, and if all else fails, use the Search Forum feature for key words relating to your question which has been asked thousands of times and answered at least 80% of those times.

 

All programs needed are free, however, there are improved programs that some say are much better that can cost a pretty penny. Most feel it is worth it, personally I'd stick to the free as the costly ones only truly cut back on time rather than capability.

 

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Portal:Modeling

 

There are links to all the tools needed in this link, and tutorials for them all as well. Take the Noob to Pro modeling tutorial first. Just search around and you'll find it.

 

Although it is best for some and recommended to take tutorials from modeling > texture > nifskope, I suggest you spin it around and do

 

Texture > modeling > nifskope.

 

Doing textures first gives you experience in using those programs first, and are by far the less frustrating and easiest to learn. That way, when you learn modeling, you will be able to relax by knowing exactly what to do afterwards, and just make it smooth sailing.

 

If this has helped you solve your quandary, please feel free to show your appreciation by clicking on Give Kudos that can be found on the left of this post, under my avatar, or on my signature should you feel this information given deserving of it. Otherwise, should you feel this not worth a Kudos, then please feel free to....

 

Be well, sleep well, fight well, live long.

~Ranokoa

[delishushpastry]

I wouldn't say this was what I was looking for exactly, but it did help to change the way I look at what I need to do. I don't want to model my own weapons or create my own textures, I know that this would take a lot of time to learn and understand. What I do want to do however is replace the weapons in game with ones that have been made by other modders. I would want to replace (for example) the Deadric Claymore with the Dragonslayer sword from this link. I would want to keep the values all the same for attack speed, damage, and the rest but just have an new look and name to the sword. I've seen this done in this mod so I know it can be done, but I don't know exactly where to start. From what you said I can gather that it would likely have something to do with opening the model/texture in photoshop and then replacing it with the model/texture from the downloaded mod. Even if I can't do this I have a few people that can show me how. Basically I don't need a tutorial I just need an introduction for replace models with already created models.

 

Along with this I was wondering how to place these already downloaded weapons into the leveled list. Like making the Dragonslayer sword become a weapon you find randomly on bandits, marauders, etc. at level 25+. I'm sorry if I didn't touch on this point more in my introduction post (it was late) but any help now would be much appreciated.

 

And thank you for your post ranokoa, even though it wasn't exactly what I was looking for it did help in some ways. + kudos =)