Mod Testing

[falcont]

Hi All

Can anyone Tell me if there is a quick way of getting from the CS to Oblivion For Testing your mod ass you make it.

I have looked through Countles tuts from the forum and the wiki site, but nothing have I found, I have also found that if you try to test your mod from a saved game, what you have just put into your mod dosn't allways show up. So that means

a fresh start every time you wish to do a test run, whitch to me seems along wat round to do a test. If there is an allternative

wat of doing this, can some one Please point me in the right direction on how to do it. Thank you in advance Falcont

[WarRatsG]

When I test a mod I make, I have many things that allow me to test every area of what I have done. These include:

 

 

- (OBSE Only) Using "ToString" or "$" to print something to the console allows me to make sure variables are progressing as they should. Without OBSE you can use MessageBoxes or just messages. The syntax is simple...

Print $Variable

OBSE

Message "Variable = %.2f" Variable"

Non-OBSE

Just replace the word "Variable" with the variable you want to show

 

- Use a fresh save if possible until you know it works. This is especially important if you edit quests. Start clean every time.

 

- Use what I call "Drafts". What this means is create something you want to have in the real mod, but put it in a different esp. Create that thing only. So if you want to create a special scripted item then you can build the script in the draft, test out as many scripts as you want, then when you have found what works best, include it in the real mod. This means you can have extra scripts to make it easier to test, then when it is included you leave the extra scripts out. It also cuts down on the amount of junk scripts lying around and possibly dirt.

 

 

Hope some of these help.

[David Brasher]

You are experiencing savegame warpage and savegame memory. If you have ever visited the area you are modding with your play-test character, then the savegame will store information about the area, and when you try to change it with a mod, things won't always come out right. So the best approach is to back up to a savegame from before you visited the area. Sometimes you can just refrain from visiting the area for more than three days to trigger cell respawn and reset. In some instances you may need to start a new character and have that one be your play-test character.

 

When play-testing, be careful when and where you save. One thing you can do is get your play-tester character near the area and then save. When actually testing the new stuff, don't save, just keep on loading up the same save over and over each time you test. Like if you are editing an interior cell, you might park your character outside the door and save. Then you can go through the door on each play-test. You may have seen mods that have instructions that say you should not activate the mod while you are in a certain cell. This is because the mod edits that cell.

 

And unfortunately, there is no quick way from the CS to Oblivion. You have to load up the game every time you play-test. (You can't mod while Oblivion is running and in a minimized window. It will crash Oblivion, and then you will have to load it up again anyway and you end up not saving any time.)

[falcont]

To WarRatsG and David Brasher

Thanks very much for your replys, Both have been a great help Thanks Again