Totally Delete a Workshop/Buildable Area Boundary?

[Acacophony]

I would like to make a mod that removes some of the buildable settlements and turns them into fleshed out towns and villages. I'm starting with Starlight Drive-In, but I'm totally new to the Creation Kit and modding in general. Unfortunately there's not nearly the same resources out there for the Fallout 4 Creation Kit that there was for Skyrim.

 

I am not sure how to even start. I've seen a LOT of tutorials about how to create new workshop locations, but I haven't seen any references to deleting them. I'm hesitant to just go in and start deleting things, too, I don't want to mess anything up.

 

One thought I had was to set the buildable area down as small as it would let me, and then disable the workbench so that it's hidden, but I don't know if just deleting the workshop and area would be better?

 

Or, is deleting the boundaries of the buildable area even necessary?

 

Any help is appreciated, feel free to assume that I know absolutely nothing about the creation kit and I just crawled out from under a rock, because that's basically the truth.

 

EDIT: I thought today that maybe scaling down the buildable area to a single player home for each town I want to make (kind of like Home Base but obviously still in the exterior cell) might actually be easier and cleaner. Maybe this could also prevent conflicts with the minutemen quests, because a settlement recruitment beacon could be built to satisfy the quest requirements, and then scrapped again. If that would work, I might change the building requirements for the settlement beacon to be free, or something cheap like 1 Steel, just to keep it from being a problem for people who are trying to clear those quests out of their log.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Acacophony

[Ethreon]

Whatever you do you do not delete references. You Z them down -30000 and you're ok.

[BlahBlahDEEBlahBlah]

Off the top of my head and WITHOUT ANY REAL THOUGHT (to be perfectly clear):

 

Removing the workshop script from the individual workbenches at the locations might be sufficient.

Might even just go into the individual workbenches workshop scripts and set the workshop parent property to None.

 

However, I have no doubt that no matter what you do, somehow it's gonna be problematic for Preston stuff (at the very least).

...but that's really besides the point. =)

[VIitS]

Let me know if you need help understanding any of the following.

I'd say probably the easiest way to do it would be to find the reference ID of the workbench there, add it to your plugin (using the CK, or Copy as Override in FO4Edit), then change the Name - Base field to point at something else, like a bush or something, and move it where you need using the CK. No deleted records, but the workbench is completely gone. It may be possible to change what object a placed reference points to using the CK (as opposed to deleting it and putting a new reference with a different FormID), but I'm not sure, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what to do if there is.

Just make sure to also clear out everything in the VMAD (Virtual Machine Adapter) field, and everything in the linked references section.


If you want to be thorough

you can do the same thing for everything listed in the "Linked References" section, and everything that references that particular reference record. You can either use the CK to find those, or you can use FO4Edit. That way, you can completely remove the workbench and anything linked to it, without having to worry about potential conflicts that would be caused by just deleting the record.

To find what vanilla records reference a particular record, right click in the left-hand section -> Other -> Build Reference Info, then select Fallout4.esm and hit ok. It'll take a minute or two, and after that, when you have a record selected there will be a "Referenced by" tab at the bottom. Selecting that will show you every record that references your current record. For all other plugins (both mods and DLC), this information is automatically generated when you launch FO4Edit. This is why it will take longer to launch the more mods you load at once.

For the Starlight Drive-in, there are 9 records that directly reference the workbench (the workbench's ID is 0001D0E2), 8 of which are placed references*, and one is the Location reference**. I think (I'm not sure at all, this is just based off of my experience with modding Fallout games), that doing this, for the workbench and the things linked to it (and sometimes the things linked to those, it depends on what kind of link), you shouldn't have any problems with Preston telling you that they need help.

*which you can convert to other ones if you want to get rid of them without leaving a "Deleted" reference - which, as Ethreon said, is bad. In fact, it is worse than an ITM (Identical to Master) record as far as compatibility goes, as that just has the possibility of overwriting an earlier mod, whereas a deleted reference can cause a CtD if another mod tries to use it.

**which you wouldn't want to do much with. I would suggest deleting the workshop and settlement-related keywords, and if you are making it a town you probably would also want to remove the links to the various molerat ambushes with other static objects (trees, buildings, etc...) and the "Placed NPC" (ACHR) references of those molerats you could use for the NPCs you are populating the town with.

General tips for cleaning your mods:

One last tip: while the CK is definitely the way to go when making a location mod, it's always a good idea to clean it using FO4Edit. The CK often leaves "dirty" edits, which generally occur when you look at (select) a record but don't actually change anything. It's mainly a problem with placed references (things placed into a cell/ the worldspace), but can occur in other records if you make a change then undo that change. In FO4Edit, it will be highlighted green (indicating it is unchanged when compared to the vanilla record). You never, ever want to clean your mod with the CK.

And if you want to be really good about cleaning your mod, in addition to removing the ITM records (green), you can also look at the yellow "Placed Object" records in your mod, especially if you used layers when making the location in the CK. Yellow means there was a change in this version of that record when compared to previous (vanilla, or another mod if you are making a plugin that uses things from someone else's mod).

If there are any records where the only change is that it now has a layer associated with it, you can delete it from your mod (using FO4Edit, as said before you never want to use delete something using the CK, as it marks that thing as deleted rather than removing it from the plugin). Layers are just a way to group things in the CK, to make it easier to work on specific things (by hiding certain layers, or everything not in a certain layer).

 

[greekrage]

I think going to the workshop and looking at its references to and from is a better idea..

 

Delete the reference links on both items involved so you dont have any issues then you can "disable and hide from local map " the work bench directly from the ck using the batch action...

 

I do this all the time if i want to remove an asset/resource or anything referenced to the workshop workbench .

I make sure the item is no longer "connected" to the workshop or other item and then i can safely disable it.

[greekrage]

Also note..

 

YOU CAN delete stuff in the CK as long as you ALL WAYS go to FOedit after and undelete and disable (something i forget to do sometimes when im rushing to get a patch out.. :tongue: )

 

From what i know...

FOedit "sinks" stuff -30.000 when you perform the undelete and disable" on its own.

Edited March 19, 2017 by greekrage

[greekrage]

One more thing...

 

When you say you want to turn "starlight" into a random location that isnt a settlement you have to consider that it isnt only the workbench that has to be "removed" .

There are several things also linked to the cells in question meaning that the cells themselves are "contaminated" thus making things a little more complicated than you think.

[Acacophony]

 

However, I have no doubt that no matter what you do, somehow it's gonna be problematic for Preston stuff (at the very least).

...but that's really besides the point. =)

 

I'm hoping that by using locations which are just random Taking Point quests (like Starlight Drive-In, Tidings Co-Op, etc) it will minimize the impact on Preston's quest line, since in the vanilla state you can get multiple Minuteman quests at once. However, a mod like this wouldn't really be intended to be used with a Minuteman playthrough anyway, so hopefully that won't be a huge problem for people. I don't think I have the skills to totally rework the minuteman questline to not take those points into account.

[Acacophony]

Okay, I read through everyone's replies and I think I followed about half of it. From what everyone is saying, it sounds like it is safe is delete references themselves, but not actors or objects. Is that right?

 

VlitS: If I followed you correctly, I would essentially be making the workbench appear as a bush so it can't be interacted with, but underneath the bush appearance it's still the workbench? Would that also stop people from accessing the workshop mode using the hotkey?

 

Tuning the NPC references from Molerat to citizens is a great idea and I'll probably do that, since I wasn't sure how else to deal with the molerats, unless I just left them and let the town have a molerat attack upon being discovered by the player. I didn't even know you could try to clean a mod using the CK, I though Fo4Edit was the only option for that, so no worries there. I wasn't going to touch layers unless I had to, because I didn't understand what they do in the CK, I'm only familiar with layers in art programs.

 

geekrage: The only thing you said that I didn't understand is "FOedit "sinks" stuff -30.000 when you perform the undelete and disable" on its own." Does anyone mind explaining what that means?

[VIitS]

Not really. It would be a bush in every way that the game can see. You are just reusing the reference ID so you don't have to delete any records, or leave a phantom workbench floating far beneath the surface.