Another newbie that needs help to take the first steps...

[bben46]

Welcome to Tesnexus.

 

I promise your English is much better than my Portuguese.

 

I too am an old man playing a children's game. 61 years old and working in and around electronics for 44 years. I consider computers to be just a subset of electronics. Somewhere along the way, I acquired a BS in computer science and worked as a fortran programmer for several years. But that was too limiting. At present I am partly retired and work as a consultant on several brands of motor controls. It sounds like you will bring a lot of programming expertise to the forums.

 

I have been reading Science Fiction since I was about 12. My all time favorite SF author is H. Beam Piper. Who died in 1965 with only about a dozen books published. Most of which have been reprinted several times.

[jojo man]

HA HA! Love the new custom title, Ben! And have you ever read The Callahan Chronicles?(There's a link in my second post)

[nosisab]

Thanks for the welcome and for the feedback.

 

Lord Slyther, I don’t expect conflicts for, as I see it, the only potential conflict is with a mod that changes|uses Divine Elegance´s basement, as that is the only thing my mod replaces from the original game. Everything else is new stuff. If you are aware of any mod that uses DE’s basement, please let me know (and I may move my showroom somewhere else … but it wouldn’t fit as nicely).

 

I suppose my stats are unusual for the gamers community, so I provide them for your enjoyment:

• I am Brazilian.
  
• I just completed 60 years of age and 40 years in the IT business.
  
• In general, my English is good, but, here and there, what I write is not exactly what I mean (please, take this into account when you find a phrase that is a little out of place)
  
• I am having the time of my life with this new ‘toy’ I found a couple of weeks ago: the TES CS
  
• Now I am a part time Oblivion modder (at least for the next few months)
  
• Oh, yes …, I am also into sci-fi books (must have about 500 of them), but don’t ask me anything, as I don’t remember a single one of them (which is good: I will enjoy them all over again when I get to my old age)
  

As for insanity, I am not a ‘Brazilian Nuts’, but my lifetime hero is Don Quixote (if you know him, you know what I mean).

 

Jojo man, I will follow the rules and won’t demean anything. But I am afraid I may demean myself stating that I have no idea of what fish sticks or Blackhawk helicopters mean here (or Kudos, or LOL, or grues, o SPAM, or … ). As we say here at home: I feel like a Virgin in a whorehouse.

 

 

As for the kudos, here goes your first, as you came with the right foot to the forum and a correct posture (not to mention your modding perspectives seems very well tuned :) )

 

Ah, and since you are Brazilian you will 'sacar' the meaning (or would be a pun?) of my sig name. It is the name of my very first D&D 1rst edition character. A mage that pretended to be a mysterious one :)

[nosisab]

Welcome to Tesnexus.

 

I promise your English is much better than my Portuguese.

 

I too am an old man playing a children's game. 61 years old and working in and around electronics for 44 years. I consider computers to be just a subset of electronics. Somewhere along the way, I acquired a BS in computer science and worked as a fortran programmer for several years. But that was too limiting. At present I am partly retired and work as a consultant on several brands of motor controls. It sounds like you will bring a lot of programming expertise to the forums.

 

I have been reading Science Fiction since I was about 12. My all time favorite SF author is H. Beam Piper. Who died in 1965 with only about a dozen books published. Most of which have been reprinted several times.

 

Hi again bben46 :) now we are not 'alone' anymore and someday we, the 'seniors' (if not just because our age), will be the majority, hehe

 

And we aren't oldies, we are 'ancient ones' LOL

 

Edit: We share the taste for SciFi too, but I think this is something almost all, if not plain all of us here do. Anyway just commenting our favorite books and authors would ask for a whole thread for itself :thumbsup:

[QQuix]

Nosibab. I noticed your nickname even before I first posted here. But it sounded kind of Japanese, and I thought it should be just a coincidence. Only last night I noticed your full nick name. Very, very good!! I loved it.

 

Hi, Bben. I started my career as a professional programmer (assembler 360), but just for a few years. Only in the 90s I resumed programming, in a venture of mine into Artificial Inteligence. But I do love programming. I always joke that, if I win the lottery, I will become a full time programmer.

[nosisab]

Nosibab. I noticed your nickname even before I first posted here. But it sounded kind of Japanese, and I thought it should be just a coincidence. Only last night I noticed your full nick name. Very, very good!! I loved it.

 

Hi, Bben. I started my career as a professional programmer (assembler 360), but just for a few years. Only in the 90s I resumed programming, in a venture of mine into Artificial Inteligence. But I do love programming. I always joke that, if I win the lottery, I will become a full time programmer.

 

If anyone is wondering, there is nothing special in my nickname, just than it make the full sense only in Portuguese, as it means something like: "The one nobody knows", or "It's not known who he is" by how it sounds when spoken. I thought it being a good idea to a RPG character who pretended to be mysterious... long time ago :)

 

Well, to you and bben46, QQuix, will not surprise I too coming from the /360 and /370, since in those times the firsts chips to 4 operations calculators, TTLs logical ports and the such, were the fashion. This was before things like z80 and Sinclair micro computers being released.

[nosisab]

QQuix, not long time ago I was wondering how to use the OBSE function IsModLoaded to control what quests to start, so that only the ones related to existent mods would do so, in game ( BTW, a way to condition some quest being ever started to the presence or absence of certain mod). Maybe you can look through this idea, maybe it is even related to the 3rd way you mentioned before.

[QQuix]

As I see it, the IsModLoaded should be enough if you only need to know if a mod is installed or not. (provided the user does not change the esp name, as I do).

 

But you still can't reference its objects without duplicating them in your mod

 

What I am doing goes like this: suppose you need to reference an item created by Mod X

• Use CS to find in which cell Mod X creates the item and write down the item’s name
  
• Add a scripted item to that cell
  
• Write a script that scans the cell looking for the item type (using GetFirstRef/GetNextRef) This fits nicely in a onload block.
  
• Cycle thru all items found, looking for the one that matches the name (function NameIncludes or CompareName)
  
• Save the reference and keep it alive >> that is the reference you need.
  
• If the item is inside a container, look first for the container´s name and, then, cycle thru all items inside
  

In my case, I don’t look for an specific item. I look for any container in the vendor’s cell and duplicate everything inside to my “Main Dresser” (that is where my models get their clothes). This way, any item added to the shop by any mod will be there and I can build my “Consolidated Catalog”

 

The only issue I can think of is if a future version of Mod X changes the name of the item/container

[IndorilTheGreat]

Sorry. I forgot to mention before that SPAM is also considered "random posts," or "junk email." That's why the phrase "Have SPAM and don't fun!" is ironic.

 

Here is a picture of SPAM (the meat):

 

http://www.forward-moving.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/38197-spam.jpg

 

 

Enjoy! :P

[nosisab]

As I see it, the IsModLoaded should be enough if you only need to know if a mod is installed or not. (provided the user does not change the esp name, as I do).

 

But you still can't reference its objects without duplicating them in your mod

 

What I am doing goes like this: suppose you need to reference an item created by Mod X

• Use CS to find in which cell Mod X creates the item and write down the item’s name
  
• Add a scripted item to that cell
  
• Write a script that scans the cell looking for the item type (using GetFirstRef/GetNextRef) This fits nicely in a onload block.
  
• Cycle thru all items found, looking for the one that matches the name (function NameIncludes or CompareName)
  
• Save the reference and keep it alive >> that is the reference you need.
  
• If the item is inside a container, look first for the container´s name and, then, cycle thru all items inside
  

In my case, I don’t look for an specific item. I look for any container in the vendor’s cell and duplicate everything inside to my “Main Dresser” (that is where my models get their clothes). This way, any item added to the shop by any mod will be there and I can build my “Consolidated Catalog”

 

The only issue I can think of is if a future version of Mod X changes the name of the item/container

 

I had the Idea of mod communication while talking with Vagrant0 somewhile ago, I must confess I forgot it until now

If possible at all, this would involve some quest script doing the communication area role.

the problem about inter-mod reference is that the engine numbers the references depending on the load order (in fact it prefix then with a hex byte keeping the CS formID intact). Yet is possible to retrieve this on fly (or so I think before actually testing it) and someone else seems to have had similar idea as there is a mod recently released that recover these ID on actual gaming. See this FormID finder mod

 

Repeating, I have not tested this idea as I had other problems, most of then related to the 'real world' and just forgot it. But I'll be working it as I have direct plans on using it, if it is possible at all, of course :)

 

Anyway, I am saying these things as so vague concepts since your curriculum says you can manage then if need.

 

Edit: Is not fundamentally different the way you planned, the mod verification would perform mainly the role of defining what quests to start. Obviously the target mod changing the ESP name is a problem we can't control.