Newish Modder requires advice!

[Beccy]

Ok, so i've hidden in the shadows long enough, its time for my evil laugh and plan to take over the world!. or not. It is about time i asked you wonderfull people for some help and advice though.

 

I've never before made a mod for the general public, all i've ever done is basically changed things in morrowind/oblivion and used the ESP's for myself. I was fairly handy at both of the previous Construction Kits so this new Creation Kit doesnt really worry me too much. But, this new mod i'm planning is to be my greatest work yet. and i'd like some input and or advice on the following issues :

The Short list of questions!

 

• My mod once done is going to be a player home. but i prefer the idea of making it an ''earned'' home, and worked on rather than something i just plonk into the game and set owenership to the player on. How difficult is this to do on the whole?, (this scripting aspect is something i've never done)
   
  
• What is the general opinion of the community about mods that alter NPC's that may, or may not already be dead in your game?, for example an NPC required to help you upgrade the house. (obviously they'd need flagging for essential in the mod to stop them dying, but i mean for games saved already that the mod was added too.)
   
  
• what is the general opinion of the community of altering locations ingame already created, as apose to building from scratch?
   
  
• How does the player homing upgrading system work?
  

The Long explaination!

 

There is a location already existing ingame i wish to convert to a player home using the CK once it's released. it is currently part of a quest (side/minor quest) and my intention was to basically tack on the ownership of the place once cleared with the help of an NPC related to the location. There are a few things i'm not really sure how, or even if i can change. for example, can the game be one thing up untill a point and then completly changed?, i.e. could i keep the places current interior look and function for its first quest line, then change the door linkage after it was ''cleared'' to take me to another version?,

 

another large issue i'll have is that the location i want, will require some exterior tweaking, its not all internal cell changes, will these be possible in the above mentioned method? or can i not ''phase'' the outside world at all? should i just scrap that idea from the getgo?

 

Also, given the size and nature of the location i was hoping to have its cost and stuff equal to its scale for more ''realism'' i'm not sure how the community and gamers would feel, i know its always possible to just cheat i guess though right?,

 

and my last issue, is the interior cell is fairly large, if i intended to retexture most of it as part of the renewal, is there anyway i can keep the lag down?, i mean i've downloaded some player owned homes that while they look absolutley amazing, have the horrid drawback of like 1fps which is something i want to avoid if possible, any tips for this would be massively welcome.

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer on these issues, i'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this project, while it might not be as grand as some of them, i'm hoping to make a very versatile player home that really has that ''earned'' feel.

-Becs

[eltucu]

i.e. could i keep the places current interior look and function for its first quest line, then change the door linkage after it was ''cleared'' to take me to another version?,

 

another large issue i'll have is that the location i want, will require some exterior tweaking, its not all internal cell changes, will these be possible in the above mentioned method? or can i not ''phase'' the outside world at all? should i just scrap that idea from the getgo?

 

As far as i know, the two issues would be resolved in the same way. Each object you want to change needs to be enabled and disabled from a script (just like using the console ingame). So, the first one would allow you to disable the original door, then enable a new one that takes you to a new interior cell.

 

But, if you plan to change the exterior, that one would be more tricky cuz you cant "swap" exterior cells (well, maybe in the CK you can who knows lol but it would be overkill to duplicate an exterior cell just for that anyway). So, each object that you modify should be manipulated with a script that enables/disables objects accordingly.

 

Thats exactly how (i suppose, taking in account Oblivion) buying upgrades for Skyrim's houses works. They're just scripts attached to a dialogue option and a quest that subtracts money from your pocket, and enables/disables a bunch of references (objects n stuff) in your house.

 

Probably, in the CK, if you load the interior of a house that you can buy, you'd see all the objects placed at the same time in the cell, and it probably has a quest attached to it that manipulates a script that says that at first all of the objects related to upgrades are disabled, then when you buy the upgrades they're enabled accordingly.

 

I dunno if there was an option in the Construction Set of Oblivion that specified if a reference was enabled or disabled by default. In any case, you'd probably will need to handle them with a script in the same manner.

 

Short story : It can be done, but you'd need to learn some scripting, how much scripting? That depends on how complex your associated quest will be. Enabling and disabling stuff with scripts its rather easy, triggering such scripts relating them to a quest or something is easy too (say, if queststage is 20, run enableallstuff script, simple stuff) A quest with some fetching, buying, and other tasks like that could require a fairly good scripting knowledge. Finally, making a full blown quest with followers and scripted special events in places like dungeons and such would require a very good knowledge the scripting language.

Edited February 3, 2012 by eltucu