Creating a Follower

[Ghostrick]

Ok my NPC uses 3 mods for looks and armor, shes invisable what went wrong?

[madmongo]

The script name is at the top of the script when you create it (one of about a bizillion things that's not obvious in the GECK). Once you've created your script, select that script in the drop-down box on the NPC's form, in this case, DevScript. I tend to name my custom scripts starting with the letter zz so that I can easily find them. Don't name NPCs and scripts and other stuff with tags that start with numbers because that doesn't work for certain things.

 

You don't need a quest script unless you want a quest to hire your character or you want your character to have some sort of quest.

 

One other annoyance about the GECK is that scrips fail silently (they don't tell you what's wrong). If you use the GECK power-up it will at least tell you when a script fails to compile and what the problem is with the script.

[madmongo]

A couple of things here.

 

You can't use armor and assets from an esp in your mod. You can only use assets from an esm, and that will make your mod dependent on than esm.

 

If you create a custom NPC in an esp file, it will suffer from the infamous head/body skin mismatch bug. You have to create your NPC in an esm to avoid that bug. On the other hand, if you modify an existing asset in an esm (like you remove a piece of furniture or something from the game) that change will often be ignored. So you can add new stuff in an esm, but changing or removing existing stuff needs to be done in an esp. That often means you'll need both an esm and an esp for your mod. If your custom NPC doesn't need to mod any existing stuff in-game, then you won't need the esp.

 

You can use TesSnip to convert your file to an esm. If you use the GECK power-up it can edit esm files directly. If you use the vanilla GECK you can only edit esp files so you'll need to convert your mod back to an esp to edit it in the GECK.

[Ghostrick]

Well that would explain why the NPC gets messed up everytime I reload GECK.

[Ghostrick]

It looks like I messed up a mod, I deleted the invisible NPC but I still have one hangin around me. I must have saved over another file.

[Ghostrick]

What Snip do I use for FNV?

[RoyBatterian]

You throw snip in the trash can and never use it, it's a crap tool that will corrupt your mods.

 

You use FNVEdit. Go to the file header in your plugin, right click the "flags" check the esm box, this is unneccesary but that's how you do it for future reference.

 

Companions use a Quest script, so yes you need to make a hidden quest with the companions script attached in order for it to work. Be sure not to change the variable names, the engine is hard coded to look for those specific names.

 

The head/body mismatch bug only happens with ESM files, edit your ini file and change bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles=1 if you decide to use an esm, and let your users know that in the mod description if you release it.

 

You can override files in either an esp or and esm, esm's must have the ONAM records preserved in the file header.

 

You can most certainly use custom assets in an esp, that's complete nonsense to say otherwise. If you pack them in a BSA make sure you make the name "yourespname - main.bsa" so the game loads them correctly. Replace yourespname with the name of your esp or esm.

[madmongo]

TesSnip comes with the Fallout Mod Manager so it's one less tool that you have to download. I've never had it bug up a mod but then I've only ever used it to convert a mod from an ESP to an ESM. Some folks prefer FNVEdit. That's fine, too. Either one will work for this.

 

The head/body mismatch only occurs with ESP files. The ini fix doesn't work for everyone. Defining NPCs in an ESM works for everyone and doesn't require anyone to fiddle with their ini files.

 

You can add custom assets in an ESP or an ESM (don't know why you thought I was saying otherwise). If you want to share things between mods, define them in an ESM. Otherwise it doesn't matter, except for NPCs due to the skin bug.

 

Deleting or modifying existing assets needs to be done in an ESP. Some things are ignored if you do them in an ESM. For example, let's say you are changing the inside of the Lucky 38 Casino Floor. You add some new stuff, then you delete a terminal inside the office under the VIP Lounge to make room for something you added. If your mod is an ESP, everything works. If your mod is an ESM, your new stuff will be there, but the terminal won't be deleted (this is how I discovered this "feature", by the way).

 

And again, your companion only needs a quest script if you want your companion to have a quest. I've made plenty of simple companions that don't have a quest script (or a quest). You can hire and fire and set a lot of conversation options using only the companion's script. If you look at my Ghost companion mod you'll see that she doesn't have a quest or a quest script. All you do is speak to her to have her follow you (no quest). Quests are nice and can add some depth to a character, but they aren't strictly necessary for a companion.

[RoyBatterian]

TESnip is known buggy, it's not up for argument and it shouldn't be used ever. If your plugins corrupt peoples saves and it's found you used Snip to make or modify them your mods can be removed and you can possibly be banned if people report it enough.

 

There are plenty of examples of NPC's which have no such problems in ESP files, I'll point you at Someguy's mods as a well known example. Additionally, fiddling with ini files is part of this game if you want things to work in a consistent manner.

 

esp's can be mastered to esp's, they don't need to be in an esm for assets to be used between mods.

 

No it doesn't need to be done in an esp, that's complete nonsense. Your terminal isn't being removed because the ONAM record is missing, and it's missing because you use TESnip which doesn't preserve them, xEdit does. The vanilla esm's and plenty of other mods which are esm's override things in other esm's without an issue.

 

If you're using a quest script without a quest attached to it, you're doing it wrong. The quest does not have to be active in order for variables to be kept in the script, but any GameMode blocks will not run.

[madmongo]

I haven't had any problems with my mods the way that I've made them, and no one has ever reported a problem with them. That said, you may have a point about TesSnip. You seem to understand this better than I do.

 

I have never seen an esp mastered to an esp. I don't know how you would even do that. Care to explain?

 

You are obviously misunderstanding what I am saying about quests.

 

For an NPC, you need:

the NPC defined

the NPC placed somewhere and given a unique tag (that doesn't begin with numbers)

an NPC script

AI packages

a quest (which must be enabled) that has the NPC's conversation options

 

Completely optional:

A quest to hire the NPC or some other type of quest. This can be the same quest as above or can be a different quest.

a quest script to go with the above

 

All I am saying is that the last two bits are optional, and if all you want is a simple companion you can easily do without them.