[LE] Possible to replace Skyrim.esm with my own game?

[Shadyfan4500]

Like the title asks, would it be possible to create my own game, name it "Skyrim.esm," replace the original one (backing it up elsewhere first), and then launch it with the Skyrim launcher? I'd imagine that, as long as everything is set up properly, such as making sure not to refer to something that doesn't exist in some script or whatever - you know, a working standalone mod that uses most or all of Skyrim's resources, that one would be able to make their own game using the Creation Kit and Skyrim's assets.

 

If it's possible, It's very likely that you wouldn't be able to sell the game. It is using assets created by BGS in a custom game. Idk though, because this game would be very mod-like, and BGS is very mod-friendly nowadays. I've been really curious about this for some time, as it's a very interesting idea. I am way more familiar with the Creation Kit (well, really the GECK) than I am with say, Unity or Unreal.

[iXenite]

Take a look at Enderal and how it was made. That should answer your question. Also, no you would never be able to sell a mod like that as a retail product. Maybe in the Creation Club, but I'm not really sure they would accept something that fundamentally changes everything in the game, and is therefore incompatible with every other mod out there.

 

Enderal:

https://enderal.com/

[Shadyfan4500]

Enderal looks very huge. How did they make it? Did they create their own ESM and bypass the start of Skyrim or the loading of a savegame to put you directly into their worldspace or just do what I asked about above and replace Skyrim.esm with a custom-made file?

[iXenite]

I can't really recall how they made it specifically. I do know it has its very own launcher that installs and launches Enderal. You see nothing from Skyrim when starting the game up or playing it, it does seem like a completely different game. I'd recommend giving it a try, and I suppose from there you could poke around the files or something. Might give you the insight you're looking for. Just know that it is pretty big - so it takes time to install and stuff. That and it is a bit more demanding than Vanilla Skyrim.

[Shadyfan4500]

Thanks for all the help

[iXenite]

No problem. Good luck with everything.

[GaticusHax]

Sure you can entirely replace the distributed assets.

It's called a total conversion and except for some adjustments in the ini and the level of complexity,

there is nothing special about the retail content compared to a plugin you would make yourself.

You can make a TC with just the basic tools you are already familiar with.

 

All of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games themselves are basically just TC's, running on customized

versions of the Gamebryo engine.

 

To be honest though, you're probably biting off more than you can chew if you are thinking about making one.

Making a TC is a huge heap of work, even for something pretty tiny and you should have a firm grasp of

how the engine works first.

 

Just for fun, you could probably mash something together from retail and community assets without too much

effort but then there could be copyright issues and you're basically talking about more of an overhaul compared to a TC.

There are quite a few overhauls available already. These are basically TC's too, but instead of shipping all the files

you need to build the overhaul and dealing with copyright issues, they provide instructions how to build it yourself.