Looking for insight on what is or is not doable

[squee913]

I will try to make this short :P

 

Some time ago I did a Let's Play of oblivion on youtube where I Role Played a very detailed character. Most of the LP centered around the third party mod A Ruin Tail's Tale. and included a little modded content from myself. This was by far, one of the most popular LPs I have ever done as the Role Playing, journal entries I wrote from the characters point of view, and Ruin Tail turned it into a truly epic and emotional ride. I have been asked many times to do the same thing for Skyrim and I am going to do it right. I am making a 100% custom story for the LP continuing the adventures of the Character I made in oblivion (yes, I know there is a time difference, but that is part of the story)

 

While I have decent knowledge of how to use the Kit, I have never attempted something so complex. I am not so much looking for help as for people to throw ideas off of and get insight into if certain things I want to do are possible or not. Most of it I am sure I can do since I do not have to worry much about scripting. The advantage of this is that I will know who to talk to, when to talk to them, and what to do next, so I don't need scripts to tell me this.

 

So I wanted to list some of the things I am looking to do and get insight from you guys. Perhaps there are complications I have not thought about, or you might know shortcuts etc etc. Thanks in advance!!

 

I am making a new Guild/faction called the Antrops. I plan to add chapters for them in most major cities with a main chapter in one of the major cities. While the character will join the guild and level up within it, I think I have found a clever way to do it. The point of the guild is to basically make the world a better place. I could simply link the quests to in game quests that help people. in other words, have the chapter head say, "I heard this store keeper had his golden claw stolen. Go see if you can help" and then go do the in game quest. I could basically just do this with dialog. Thoughts? Am I missing something?

 

I need a way to make a specific NPC do the bard animation with the lute. I want her to sing something. the song can be post production, but I have no idea how to make her *look* like she is singing. I am looking for an animation mod, or if I need to learn the script for it.

 

One major issue I have is the fact that my character hates killing when he can avoid it. In oblivion, the Thieves arsenal allowed me to knock people out in a variety of ways, but I have yet to find a mod like that for skyrim. Does anyone know how hard it would be to create a weapon that knocks people unconscious? I can make paralyzing weapons, but just freezes them in place.

 

 

In any case, I am hoping that I am posting this in the right place. I am trying to accomplish something massive here, and I need as much insight as I can get :)

Edited April 3, 2012 by squee913

[shotgun188]

I think you're relying too much on things that aren't in the game. Try and fit your story around things already in the game. Adding a single NPC wouldn't be that hard for someone who knew what they were doing but making factions is very hard.

[squee913]

I think you're relying too much on things that aren't in the game. Try and fit your story around things already in the game. Adding a single NPC wouldn't be that hard for someone who knew what they were doing but making factions is very hard.

 

 

Not as much as you would think. I don't plan on making a full fledged faction. Instead I plan on creating houses and populating them with people and calling it a faction. I don't need to script levels of advancement or anything. Remember it is a story I am telling, not a mod I am releasing for everyone. Instead of scripting in something that says I leveled up in the guild, I simply need the chapter head to tell me that. I don't really need to create a new quest for the faction. I only need dialog telling me to go do an in game quest and dialog telling me I finished it and rose in rank. :biggrin:

 

To be fair, I agree it is a lot of work, but I am pretty good at custom dialog and creating environments.

[jet4571]

For the bard why not make it a normal bard that sings Ragnar the Red? they are pretty lively when singing Ragnar the Red. and and like you said change the song post production or you could make the new one overwrite/replace that song just for that one part. i would personally do a replacer for that song so the singing and background noise match.

 

As for whats possible all of that is possible and not as much work if most is superficial.

[squee913]

For the bard why not make it a normal bard that sings Ragnar the Red? they are pretty lively when singing Ragnar the Red. and and like you said change the song post production or you could make the new one overwrite/replace that song just for that one part. i would personally do a replacer for that song so the singing and background noise match.

 

As for whats possible all of that is possible and not as much work if most is superficial.

 

hmmm... the only thing is I need the bard to look exactly like the NPC I want to sing. It is not so much that I just need someone, but that I need a specific somebody to sing. I wonder if I can maybe edit a bard to look like her, or somehow give her the bard faction so she can do it herself.

 

I need her to sing twice, once in the Hold at whiterun and once in the wilderness.

[MofoMojo]

For the bard why not make it a normal bard that sings Ragnar the Red? they are pretty lively when singing Ragnar the Red. and and like you said change the song post production or you could make the new one overwrite/replace that song just for that one part. i would personally do a replacer for that song so the singing and background noise match.

 

As for whats possible all of that is possible and not as much work if most is superficial.

 

hmmm... the only thing is I need the bard to look exactly like the NPC I want to sing. It is not so much that I just need someone, but that I need a specific somebody to sing. I wonder if I can maybe edit a bard to look like her, or somehow give her the bard faction so she can do it herself.

 

I need her to sing twice, once in the Hold at whiterun and once in the wilderness.

 

This should be completely doable. The bards are handled via a radiant quest. You'll just need to custom make the NPC and potentially pick apart the radiant quest that handles bard singing just to get an idea of how to do it. I don't see why any of this would be too difficult without some investigation and a little bit of trial and error. Now, I'm saying that it's something I have done, but there's nothing in your outline that throws any red flags. Factions are pretty easy to implement and are also sets of "Radiant Quests" and a main quest line that holds it all together. I'm not saying it's going to be cake, but again, nothing that sounds undoable.

 

-MM

Edited April 4, 2012 by MofoMojo

[chaospearl]

The only problem I can see is that if your LP ends up being as popular as I suspect it will, you'll end up with people whining and complaining when they realize they can't actually do these things in the game. Heh. That's not meant to mean that you should cater to those sort in any way shape or form.

[jet4571]

For the bard why not make it a normal bard that sings Ragnar the Red? they are pretty lively when singing Ragnar the Red. and and like you said change the song post production or you could make the new one overwrite/replace that song just for that one part. i would personally do a replacer for that song so the singing and background noise match.

 

As for whats possible all of that is possible and not as much work if most is superficial.

 

hmmm... the only thing is I need the bard to look exactly like the NPC I want to sing. It is not so much that I just need someone, but that I need a specific somebody to sing. I wonder if I can maybe edit a bard to look like her, or somehow give her the bard faction so she can do it herself.

 

I need her to sing twice, once in the Hold at whiterun and once in the wilderness.

 

I wasn't saying use a vanilla bard but make your NPC a bard.

[squee913]

First of all, Thank you guys for taking time to respond! It means a lot!

 

MofoMojo:

I see what you mean. I guess I'll just have to pick apart the quest in the Kit and see what I come up with. I have also found a mod that let's the PC play on command. Worse comes to worse I suppose I could make a PC that looks just like the NPC and do it that way. A lot of work, but what isn't.

 

chaospearl:

I've been dealing with that since I put modded stories into my New Vegas and Oblivion LPs. Most tend to understand that what they see only works because I know what to do and where to go etc. I would never be able to make a pre-packaged mod out of it all.

 

jet4571:

 

My mistake then. So, you are saying it would be possible to simply make them part of the bard faction, or is there a Bard AI package? I don't know why I did not think of that. If there is a simply AI package for bards then that would make it easy indeed. :)

[jet4571]

There are several factions for bards. and you need to have a location that has the inn setting. You only need those to make a bard and you wont need to pick apart any quests to do it.

 

Examples:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f257/JET-WTF/bardA.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f257/JET-WTF/BardB.jpg

 

Or you could use the "Not follower bards sing everywhere" file from the Female bard for you house mod that removes the inn restriction from all bards.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3100

Edited April 4, 2012 by jet4571