Adding a new flag

[PoorlyAged]

My wife challenged me to create her a flag for a specific sports franchise. So I figured it should be easy peasy. NOT. :wallbash:

 

I could simply replace the texture on an existing flag and call it good. But that would just make which ever flag I overwrote cease to exist. :yucky:

 

So a new flag is the thing, But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how the Material file is connected to the Static Object. :confused: I see the Material Swaps that turn the Minuteman flag into the Institute or Railroad or BOS flags, but not where that MWSP takes place. And the documentation for the Creation Kit is ... well ... underwhelming.

 

Please, any help or hint would be appreciated.

[DeathMotif]

You need to create a material for the flag. Inside the CK or xEdit you need to create a material swap for that material. You need to copy the flag you want to place your material on as a new object. This will most likely be a static object. You may then apply your material swap directly to your flag.

 

This is the nuts and bolts version of the reply to your question. If you need something more detailed, let me know. Feel free to PM me.

[DeathMotif]

BTW, it is easy peasy if you've done this sort of thing before. Doing it for the first time is hard. #KnowledgeHurdles.

[DeathMotif]

After having reread your post, you really are most of the way there. Don't worry about the "how" in this case. All you need is your material swap. You can copy one of those flags as a new flag and apply your material swap to it, just like they do for the Minutemen, et.al. The system understands this to mean that you want to swap the material attached to the .nif with the one supplied in the material swap. It's all black box stuff. You can't mess with it further than this. (Unless you are good at programming, and know how to intercept program calls from a running program.)

[PoorlyAged]

I have done every thing you recommend, and my flag comes out as an Institute flag (and I blew them to oblivion :D). Is there a naming convention or a folder placement requirement? Or am I missing something really simple.

Edited May 7, 2017 by PoorlyAged

[DeathMotif]

Did you apply your material swap where the Institute swap goes? (On a copy, not the original flag.)

[PoorlyAged]

No. Added complete new flag based on the Minuteman Flag. New Static item, new Construct-able Object, new Material Swap, new Texture and new Material file. Using the same Model and Transform as the Minuteman flag. Which is why the Institute flag is completely baffling. It is what prompted the question about naming convention or file placement.

[DeathMotif]

Ok. I'm looking at FormID 0016BD73 FlagpoleMinutemen02.

If I wanted to create a standalone copy of a flag based on it, I'd first make a copy of materials\SetDressing\Minutemen\FlagMinutemen01.BGSM, naming it something appropriate (i.e. TeamFlag.BGSM)

I'd then edit the material by replacing the diffuse texture with my custom flag texture. I'd make sure that my flag texture occupies the same area as the reference texture that I am replacing. Otherwise it will look bad.

Once the material is squared away, I would open up xEdit and right click on FormID 0016BD73 and copy as a new record into a new file, and name the file something like "MyTeam".

I'd also copy a material (any will do, but we only need one containing a single material to swap) into MyTeam.

I'd replace the original material (BNAM) with "SetDressing\Minutemen\FlagMinutemen01.BGSM", and add "<filepath>\TeamFlag.BGSM" to the SNAM - Replacement Material. Make sure your path to this file is under the "Materials" folder, or fallout won't see it.

Next, I'd click on my copy of the flagpole in MyTeam and set the material swap under the model to the material swap I just created. I can also set the FULL - Name to the name of my team.

All that remains to be done is to create a constructable object. I'd once again copy a constructable object into MyTeam, and I'd edit it to require whatever components I think it needs to be built, set the CNAM - Created object to my flagpole, set the BNAM - Workbench to the appropriate workbench (you decide which workbench keyword to use), and set the FNAM - Category keyword to the appropriate menu keyword.

All that remains is to save and exit.

Add your new mod to the load order, and start placing your new flagpole.

[DeathMotif]

I was typing my last response while you were responding...

 

You sound like you have everything more or less correct. Compare with my example. Otherwise, you can zip it up and send me a link to the zip file and I can take a look.

[DeathMotif]

If you do send me a link, it may be a few hours before I can look at it. I was up all night working on a mod.