For Newbies Sake!

[NosJam]

To all, who have posted mods,

 

Am not a complete moron, still have room to work on it. Since I am not one to get to involved in playing games, due to fact, that game playing stops when all the adventures, challenges, excitement, and especially the game ends. Oblivion, has become the one and only exception. And those of you who have made, posted and written mods have opened up a whole new realm for me to which I owe many and much thanks, Because of your entusiasm and work, I have become interested in seeing, if I can learn what you do and how you go about it. As I download what I believe might be some of the tools and attempt to use them, it all ends up in confusion and frustration, ending in "what the _____?"

Which I will leave to your own imagination and laughter.

Having got all that out, let me get to what led to this somewhat lengthy but small point post.

Which is it would be immensely valuable to all newbies like me, if somewhere, there was a detailed list of the most recommended modder's tools to use. A list of posts or sites on where to get them. Let me point out while the aforementioned above would be nice, alas those are just preludes, to what would be most helpful. The problem this newbie ran into, was how to setup all these tools for use. Yes, they were all installed, and as I tried to use them, I realized that the tools were never designed for one such as I. They were, in fact designed to be used by those with experience with such. Now, the task had become a bit more daunting, and less enthusiastic. So I hunted around looking for cluses, how to set things, followed examples, that showed me programs and tools on how things are suppose to look, with no insight as to how they did their setup, or what steps were taken. And that is the crux of my sad woe. Leaving me just as clueless.

 

If anyone has the time, and is willing to make an effort, a detailed step by step of how everthing is suppose to be setup, as well as what tools are a must would help immensely, with a few examples

of what the end result should look like as a follow along. Now granted not everyone uses the same tools, or does things the same way. It is just the thinking of this newbie, that someplace, sometime, somewhere, a general concensus should be reached on the basic tools every newbie should start out with. So if anyone can assist in such matters, feel free inform us, newbies. In the mean time, I will keep trying to figure things out until someone decides to send me a clue.

[Vagrant0]

The type of tools people use depend largly on the types of things they are trying to do. You can mod with just the CS, you can mod with just Gimp and Nifscope, you can mod just with Blender and Gimp. Technically, you can mod just with notepad. And when it comes to specific tools, most of the information about how to install and use them is available to people who calm down, and take things one step at a time. As you havn't mentioned what specific type of modding you're attempting to do, one can only immagine that you've just been running around everywhere, downloading every utility you can find, thinking that they might be useful to you.

 

That said, some utilities aren't documented, and aren't designed to be used by people who aren't atleast somewhat familiar with their use. But almost all of these utilities either don't work very well, and have since been replaced, or are designed to do the sorts of things which novices probably shouldn't attempt due to the complexity. Modding was never something that a person could just make a few clicks, and have a totally changed game. Modding requires that you actually understand what those changes you are making are, and how to make those changes.

 

This is also probably the wrong place to discuss this since this section is for site related issues, and not more game specific stuff like this.

[LHammonds]

Since we are talking about Oblivion and mods, I'm going to move this topic to the Oblivion Mods Talk forum.

 

I share you enthusiasm in the desire to learn and have been doing so for quite some time.

 

Regardless of whatever you are going to try and do, it will require plenty of reading.

 

If you find that there is not a specific tutorial or one that is detailed enough, or simply outdated, please consider writing one yourself. For people new to the tools and processes, it is hard to beat the words that come out of the mouth of somebody who just learned it (with a noticeable absence of over-the-head technical talk). It is difficult for seasoned veterans to create tutorials for things they learned long ago because they might forget the little things that made the light bulb go on when initially learning the subject matter.

 

Here are some places to go and read:

• How To Make Mods
  
• Modding Info: Avoiding Pitfalls
  
• Oblivion Mods FAQ
  
• Tutorials on the CS Wiki
  
• Resources for 3D Modeling
  
• DDS Tools Listing
  
• Oblivion Mod Wiki: Tools Listing
  

Here are some tools that I have uploaded here at TESNexus along with install instructions:

• 7-Zip
  
• Blender
  
• DDS Converter 2
  
• GIMP
  
• Official Oblivion Construction Set
  
• Paint.NET
  
• WindowCapture
  

LHammonds

[bben46]

I agree with both LHamonds and Vagrant. And would like to add. Don't expect to start with some world changing mod. start small. do it one baby step at a time, go back and check your work, then test it thoroughly. Then go on to the next step.

 

The easiest place to start is with the Wiki tutorial - My First Dungeon, located here http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...y_First_Dungeon

 

This will walk you through the most basic use of the CS and is a jumping off place for everything else. It only requires the CS.