My first modding attempt - suggestions please?

[Calsetes]

Apologies in advance for the massive amount of text.

 

Hello everyone. I'm new to the whole "modding" thing, and figured I'd try my hand at making a new race in the game. I followed a tutorial and got that part nailed down pretty well - the new race appears in the game and everything - and was looking for a little help on getting it balanced, along with a few other suggestions or ideas on where to look for some stuff I'd like to do with it but might not be able to due to my horribly craptastic skills with making meshes and textures and such.

 

 

I originally made this post on another forum, but given that's more centered around playing (and not modding) the game, I figure I'll get more help and ideas here. I'll copy / paste my text from there over to here.

 

 

I made an android race in Skyrim. I just modified the Imperial race, using its mesh and textures as a base and changing some other stuff. In-game already, this is what I have for its stats (approximately) and what other little things I've done to spice it up:

 

-Health / Stamina / Mana numbers are 60 / 60 / 30. I figure this class would be more of a physically-oriented class, but want to leave a bit of viability for mages, which is in my next point.

 

-Health / Stamina / Mana Regen numbers are 0.500, 7.000, and... I think 9.000? I wanted to have a higher mana regen rate to make up for the much smaller mana pool. I noticed when I went into the game that it looks like the base pool numbers are actually added to 50 / 50 / 50, so I might tweak the Mana pool appropriately. I want a quick regen rate but small pool to show a robot's "recharging ability."

 

-I think I made Mass 1.25, though I'm not sure what that does - if it's the player character's mass and affects acceleration rates when falling, but I've noticed that I tend to be taking small amounts of fall damage more frequently. Might tweak this to be smaller, but still higher than 1.0.

 

-Made a custom hair color, though that was more for me as the player and less for the mod itself.

 

-They breathe underwater. I also tried to uncheck "Swims," hoping I could get a "walk into deep water" effect, but apparently player characters swim no matter what.

 

-I gave them a basic attack spell, I think the Creation Kit lists it as AtronachPCLightningBolt, so it's most likely from the Atronach spirit stone or whatever.

 

-Starting Skill Boosts are 1H Weapons, 2H Weapons, Heavy Armor, Smithing, Blocking, and Restoration Magic, all at 5 points. Might swap out Restoration Magic to make it Archery.

 

-When attacked, the player has the same sound effect and "attack effect" as a Dwarven Construct, so you get clanged up instead of sliced and diced. Sparks fly, which sometimes gets annoying in combat as it obstructs your view completely just for a split-second. I think it's kind of cool, but don't know if the "metal skin" somehow also lessens damage to you.

 

-I worked the female Androids into random bandit groupings. Again, I used the Imperial Female bandits as a base, made some unique faces (but kind of half-assed it since it was through the Creation Kit, which doesn't have the best tools), and added them wherever the Female Imperial appears in bandit groups as an option. They also have the metal skin and don't bleed when attacked. Upon looting them you hear the same loot noise as a metal container (like a Dwarven construct), and they have a chance to randomly drop a piece of Dwarven Scrap - the smaller pieces on normal bandits, the big pieces on Bosses.

 

 

I know it's overpowered a bit right now, but I'm down for any suggestions to make it less overpowered, yet keeping its unique quirks somewhat intact (i.e. the high mana regen / low mana pool, etc.) What I would love to eventually work in somehow:

 

 

-Some sort of effect always on the player, whether it be by having an amulet equipped or what, that would make something visible in the "visible in first-person view" option - a heads-up display. Nothing fancy or even "working," just a simple bit of text that gets typed out over a few lines, maybe clears out, and starts typing in again. Made-up language, too, so it's nothing really easily spottable. Just a simple role-play thing that the player could use if they wanted. Not sure if I'd have to make a new body part, or what, which would probably be too complex for me.

 

-Copies of the spellbooks with different object meshes that basically do the same thing, but with tweaked spell names and descriptions. Again, a roleplay-only change. Why would a robot learn magic, when instead they could "slot in" a data core that would grant their body access to the Super-heated Plasma Launcher configuration? I figure a Dwarven Centurion Sphere, maybe lighter in weight, would be a good option.

 

-I have no idea how to make meshes, and I'd imagine I'd be fairly crappy at making them. Still, I would love to have a suit of specialized armor or a weapon that would work with this mod. I have Dawnguard, so I was thinking of somehow making a hand-cannon that would be just a reskin of a Crossbow, and take ammo for it like a normal Crossbow (again, maybe tweaked in description and appearance.) It'd be the reward at the end of a questline.

 

-Making a follower with this race. Doesn't seem too hard, since I already managed to get bandits implemented, and I already found a "how to make your own follower" guide online somewhere and bookmark it.

 

-Make a special racial skill for a "self-repair." Probably won't be able to do the animations for it - again, sucking with all that stuff - but I'd love to have it be a sort of "power-down, wait, power-up" sequence. Probably not too doable with the kit and my level of knowledge, but whatever. A man can dream.

 

-Make a dungeon. I'd make it a lab with only these androids running around in it, and the end result would be some lore I could add in-game about how they got there, who made them, etc. The end result would be an android wearing he battle armor I mentioned earlier with the bolt-gun as a boss, and maybe getting the follower (unless the follower initiates the questline, still not sure yet.) The "lab" would be fairly low-tech stuff, or otherwise would try to "fit in" with Skyrim - despite this stuff being sci-fi, I don't want it to be like walking out of Lord of the Rings and into Star Trek - it's dirty, it's half-ass and jerry-rigged to high hell. It's less "science lab" and more "we found a stone building that has... EVEN FLOORS!"

 

 

I did get one suggestion about removing the ability to use magic altogether, but I want to keep them viable as a magic user, albeit modified in some form. After rethinking the numbers, I might go with 0 magic boost on the initial race, so they'll have a flat mana pool of 50 and a higher regen rate to offset that.

[leron9999]

How about a custom spell (program?) that the race starts with?

[Urwy]

I'l like to give you a few suggestions that might help you along, if i may :)

 

Warning! Wall of texts below! /Warning!

 

-They breathe underwater. I also tried to uncheck "Swims," hoping I could get a "walk into deep water" effect, but apparently player characters swim no matter what.

 

I dont know if you've got Dawnguard. but if you do, you might have a look at the vampire lord form. It doesnt swim.. ever. Once it hits water, it starts to hover as if its in "flight form" as id like to call it, which sounds like something you might be looking for.

Or make it unable to swim at all, but just walk along to bottom of the river/sea/lake :P

 

-When attacked, the player has the same sound effect and "attack effect" as a Dwarven Construct, so you get clanged up instead of sliced and diced. Sparks fly, which sometimes gets annoying in combat as it obstructs your view completely just for a split-second. I think it's kind of cool, but don't know if the "metal skin" somehow also lessens damage to you.

Very nice! You could use the Mannequin's wooden texture and replace it with something a bit more metallic :P

Although that does get very close to what this mod does: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12996

Maybe even ask permission to use this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4819 Just use that to replace the body of the race to make sure u can still use armor on top of that ;)

 

-I worked the female Androids into random bandit groupings. Again, I used the Imperial Female bandits as a base, made some unique faces (but kind of half-assed it since it was through the Creation Kit, which doesn't have the best tools), and added them wherever the Female Imperial appears in bandit groups as an option. They also have the metal skin and don't bleed when attacked. Upon looting them you hear the same loot noise as a metal container (like a Dwarven construct), and they have a chance to randomly drop a piece of Dwarven Scrap - the smaller pieces on normal bandits, the big pieces on Bosses.

Again, very nice touch. Maybe a weakness to shock is in order? :)

 

-Some sort of effect always on the player, whether it be by having an amulet equipped or what, that would make something visible in the "visible in first-person view" option - a heads-up display. Nothing fancy or even "working," just a simple bit of text that gets typed out over a few lines, maybe clears out, and starts typing in again. Made-up language, too, so it's nothing really easily spottable. Just a simple role-play thing that the player could use if they wanted. Not sure if I'd have to make a new body part, or what, which would probably be too complex for me.

Maybe an ENB that the mod's user should add to their game? Since there's an ENB around that makes everything look like minecraft graphics XD something like that might work, though it should be a little less obvious ofc.

 

-Copies of the spellbooks with different object meshes that basically do the same thing, but with tweaked spell names and descriptions. Again, a roleplay-only change. Why would a robot learn magic, when instead they could "slot in" a data core that would grant their body access to the Super-heated Plasma Launcher configuration? I figure a Dwarven Centurion Sphere, maybe lighter in weight, would be a good option.

True, but i´d use the Dwemer lexicons instead. That way vanilla skyrim even supports the idea of the cube storing data :) (used in the quest "Transcribing the transmundane"

 

-I have no idea how to make meshes, and I'd imagine I'd be fairly crappy at making them. Still, I would love to have a suit of specialized armor or a weapon that would work with this mod. I have Dawnguard, so I was thinking of somehow making a hand-cannon that would be just a reskin of a Crossbow, and take ammo for it like a normal Crossbow (again, maybe tweaked in description and appearance.) It'd be the reward at the end of a questline.

Sounds like something that might be do-able :) Since the handcannon doesnt need any visible moving parts, aside from pulling a reload lever. It probably even possible to create some sort of ammunition port on top to load a round, by linking that ports shutter to one of the X/bow´s skeleton =D

(i'd love to try this! if only i had a decent gun to try it with :( )

 

-Making a follower with this race. Doesn't seem too hard, since I already managed to get bandits implemented, and I already found a "how to make your own follower" guide online somewhere and bookmark it.

Maybe make a quest where you learn how to construct one? :)

Similar to this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22408 only with the addition of you needing to craft it from dwemer parts or something.

 

I did get one suggestion about removing the ability to use magic altogether, but I want to keep them viable as a magic user, albeit modified in some form. After rethinking the numbers, I might go with 0 magic boost on the initial race, so they'll have a flat mana pool of 50 and a higher regen rate to offset that.

Maybe add a lesser power they can use to trade stamina for a temporary pool of magicka. Like 1-on-1 conversion of power.

Think of it as powering down its engines to redirect that power to its weapons.

 

I hope these suggestions are somewhat what you were looking for :)

[Calsetes]

I like those ideas!

 

-I still need to play with "Swims" to see how exactly it works. I want these things walking into water, but don't know if it works on NPCs or not.

 

-I want these things to appear humanoid - I have a whole thing forming in my head as to why they look like that. If anything would make them stand out and appear "inhuman," I'd try to add lines on their faces like Casts in Phantasy Star (if you're familiar with that.) I tried a mod to remove the blood splash on the screen (as the player and NPCs don't "bleed" when hit) but it crashed the first time I got hit. So.... red oil, it is! Unique to the player - maybe work it into the lore for them?

 

-Still gotta figure out how to make my own traits and such. I'm definitely going to clone the Argonian waterbreathing and change the in-game name and text on it to accurately match my lore.

 

-Not sure what an ENB is, so I'll have to look it up and see if that'll work.

 

-Good idea on the lexicons, thanks. I didn't get too terribly far into Skyrim my first attempt, as my brother's computer kept crashing (think something's faulty in it, it overheats extremely quick doing anything even mildly stressing) and I'm working on my first actual time through it on my new PC. Hopefully a romp through it will give me more of an idea of where to fit this stuff in.

 

-That mod for crafting a follower is apparently set to hidden - or at least it is for me. Still, maybe a quest where you go around and find different components and build it might be a good idea.

 

-The stamina-to-magic thing would be really good. It would also work for an idea someone else gave me, and for something my brother thought of. My brother suggested having no health regenerate unless you sleep, as a sort of "maintenance / recharge mode" thing. Maybe have no health regen, no magic regen, and just have the stamina-into-magic power represent that. One healing spell could be renamed to something like "active repair subroutine," and the stamina-to-power one be something like converting kinetic or solar energy into actual "special functions" power.

 

 

I still want to work this all into one mod, but I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself right now. I'm going to stick with just having my one race in the game, see how that works, and then add onto it and eventually release it to the public later on when I have all the bits and bobbits working well.

[androidmaster]

This sounds interesting. I'd love to help, once I have my computer back from the repair shop. I'm a noob with texturing/modeling, but I can try to throw some stuff together to maybe get a few of your concepts up and running.

 

And maybe make the water breathing a quest thing? Like, the bot will sustain water damage, and will need to be repaired if it gets wet (it'll be rusty and, therefore slower, until it rests and repairs itself), until it goes through a quest where it has an extensive upgrade that renders it waterproof. Lol.

[Calsetes]

That.... would actually be pretty cool. Or at the very least, give it "air" until it gets the upgrade.

[androidmaster]

Lolz. Yeah. It's in bad shape when you start the game, but as you work your way through the game (possibly with custom quests involving hidden dwarven technology), you get various upgrades.

 

Anyways, if I can, I'll update my CK to whatever the newest version is and play with scripting for a while, and while I do, I'll try making some spells like what an android might use (tho it would probably use flamethrowers or something like that) as practice. Lolz. Sound good? I need to learn how to do that stuff for more complex mods I'm thinking about making (trust me.... I'll need practice) and I might as well try to help you in the process :D

Edited August 15, 2012 by androidmaster

[Calsetes]

That works for me. I've been finding it hard to work on the mod during the week, so it's most likely going to be a "weekends-only" sort of project. I'm trying to think of where I can put books that would describe how the race fits into the gameplay, and I've been thinking about putting books in key locations - not hidden and thus hard-to-find, but not just lying in the open and sitting where anyone and everyone can find them.

[androidmaster]

I suggest a heavy use of Dwemer ruins. It just makes sense. And I'm pretty much free to work on stuff 24/7. Just don't have my computer right now. Something went bad on it and it's being fixed.