Beginner checklist/forewarning?

[Sphelx]

Evening all,

 

I've got 2 questions I'd like to ask;

 

1. Firstly I'm looking for a mod checklist or cheatsheet that covers basic/stupid problems and forewarnings.

Considerations like copying assets instead of editing original ones (so as to avoid conflicts with other mods) is something I've already picked up on, just by reading a LOT of existing skyrim mod descriptions and readme's...

But I'm sure there must be a lot of other such considerations a modder should account for (preferably before starting?) so things don't get ugly later or end up causing crash to desktop with mod conflicts or other problems.

 

 

And 2. I'm a complete newbie at TES/Bethesda modding, basically all my modding experience is limited to Hammer/Source, so though I'm familliar with certain precepts; there's a lot about the creationkit that escapes me.

 

Basically I'm writing a full argonian follower mod (Yeah yeah, I know, not exactly a beginners best starting point), complete with voice acting, his own story and his own quests.

And embarrassingly, I'm stuck at one of the very earliest stages of it; the dialogue.

 

As it stands I have the initial conversation which begins obviously at quest stage 0, beginning conversation soon declares stage 11, (so you're not 'meeting for the first time' every time you talk to him) and at the end of the conversation you're presented with the option of accepting him as a follower or saying "not now" which result in stage 20 (accepted) or 15 (not now).

 

Stage 20 works correctly begins the associated quest, including the journal entry for it. (This appears to work no problem)

 

Stage 15 can be successfully achieved, but... You're meant to be able to go back to the character and resume conversation right where he asks you if he can be your follower... however, despite defining the conversation to resume from the declaration of stage 15, Nissik (the argonian), refuses to talk anymore and just gives you the standard "You have questions?" refusal dialogue.

 

Where Nissik asks you if you'd like him to join you, I've copied the info statement within the same topic and included the condition of GetIsID == (with the quest name) and GetStage == 15, also the start of the conversation has the correct GetStage <10 defined. Yet despite this, he refuses to resume conversation from the point.

I've checked sqs in the console, and the stages are all being achieved properly and at the correct times, so I can't figure out why he won't resume conversation at the indicated point.

[All my quest stage declarations are done with GetOwningQuest().SetObjectiveDisplayed(n) and GetOwningQuest().SetStage(n) ]

 

 

The other problem is when you tab/escape out of conversation, it seems a bit hit and miss as to whether you can pick up conversation again at ALL, irrespective of quest stage, he more often than not will simply default back to "You have questions?" again.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't (I assume due to me faffing around with the tail end of the dialogue tree).

 

 

I've read right through the beginner quest tutorials on the official skyrim wiki and been modding along with them, but I still can't see if there's something obvious I've missed, which is why I'd appreciate some "noob checklist" or something like that until I'm much better at this.

 

Hopefully I've described the problem in enough detail, but if you need to know any more about the quest/problem just let me know; at this early stage, I'd also be happy to hand out a copy of the mod file itself if you think it'll help.