Beginner in Fallout Modding Help?

[TehRoot]

Hey guys, need some pointers and tips for getting started in fallout 3 and new vegas modding. I already have started playing around with the GECK and getting familiar with it, but I know that's not all I need to mod, so can anyone just point me to what I need to get going off on the right foot?

 

Cheers.

[WuphonsReach]

1) http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Main_Page

 

2) Download a very simple mod like one that adds items to the game world, look at how it works.

 

Easy mods like adding a single object to the game world take about a day to figure out. Harder mods like adding multiple entities, including adding items to existing containers or adding items to vendors can take a few days. Even harder mods like creating entire new locations can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks (or longer for the bigger and more ambitious projects).

 

It helps if you have a basic grounding in programming languages if you're going to try and do quests or scripts. Otherwise you're going to be in for a very rough road - and GECK is *not* helpful at pointing out what you did wrong in your script.

[ospreyaerie]

Wow Wup, I had no idea. I have been messing with G.E.C.K. for four days staright and I am having a difficult time myself trying to figure out how to build a simple player home. I have looked over every writen and video tutorial Bethesda has and still lack what I need [no doubt, a logical brain].

 

Now, I think I understand why I fail. It takes a good long time and a lot of work to produce a mod. You modders are amazing talent.

 

~ Old guy.

 

P.S. I have been trying to copy and then move a current world building to another location and use as a player home. Simple enough, right? Not for knuckle head me. Gads.

[coralfang]

Theres some good tutorials at the FO3 nexus, some stuff wont work in NV, but most basic stuff will, like making a container, making new items with existing mesh, etc... you should also check youtube, can find some good tutorials there.

[Yum Cha]

The actual Bethesda video tutorials aren't very good for beginners....You have to familiarize yourself with the layout first before jumping into building stuff.

[WuphonsReach]

P.S. I have been trying to copy and then move a current world building to another location and use as a player home. Simple enough, right? Not for knuckle head me. Gads.

I would classify moving a world building to another location as "moderately difficult". There's a lot of underlying concepts that have to be learned to do that.

 

I started doing a few things:

 

1) Find a model that is floating above the surface, figure out how to move it and create a new ESP in GECK and have it work in game. Get a basic work flow going, figure out where everything is and make a plan for how to make backups of your work regularly (so that you can revert to an earlier ESP file).

 

(I stuff everything into a SVN repository, so for my main ESP file, I generally change a few things, then commit it to SVN with a comment. If I screw up, I have a nice list of previous versions that I can revert to along with comments of what I changed.)

 

2) Add elements to the game world (such as random clutter, or a weapon, or a loot container).

 

3) Tweaking settings like the Pipboy brightness effect or color.

 

4) Creating message windows or alerts (that appear in the upper left) and using start-up quests to do some initial scripting.

 

Then I slowly got into the more advanced things like NavMesh (which I'm learning this weekend) or scripting (randomly hiding skillbooks, or moving the snow globes around) or placing actors.

 

Takes time - I was very much underwater for the first 2-3 weeks until I got used to the tools, how to move around in the 3D window and what keys *not* to hit which would suddenly cause me to touch a bunch of records/objects that I really didn't want touched.

[underword]

Geck sucks for me when i try things its just shut down

 

its is possibly that Kasperspy is a problem

[TehRoot]

My AV sometimes yells at me about the geck. Could be your issue