I want to make some standalone weapons/armor/holotapes that are craftable in armorsmith and have some questions

[ConvictJ96]

So I found this vid on youtube which demonstrates how to make a standalone armor mod but it doesn't demonstrate how to add it to leveling lists, make it craftable at a chem-bench or an armorsmith-bench.

 

After watching I promptly made a test set of bathrobes with an armor rating of 420 and a value of 69. I noticed that I have to copy the same reference across multiple files and do some manual searching for which references I need to change. That looks time-consuming af.

 

With that in mind I have 3 questions:

1. How do I make a standalone craftable item?
2. how do I make said item for armorsmith?
3. Is there a way to speed up the time it takes to change file references so I don't have to do it entirely by hand?

[taryl80]

I have make no craftable armor yet, but I would bet that it is enough to make a new recipe. If that assumption fails, you could also look at a already existing clothing/armor mod and how the mod author has made it.

 

Btw. its not bad that many modding things have to be done "by hand". You can see this as a "prevention work" step to avoid possible bugs, caused by your mod. If you have to do every step by hand, instead of some automatic algorythm or whatever, you know at least what you are doing, imo. If I think on the few "automatic" things the ck can do, I am already tired. As example you can let the ck automatically navmesh everything. But that only means that you after my experience ending up with deleting half of the navmeshes, just to do them then by hand and that are just navmeshes. I would not like to see the trouble you have with other things that could be potential made automatic by the ck or other tools.

 

Also, that modding eats time like nothing else, is a good first lesson about modding :D.

Edited November 13, 2019 by taryl80

[StormWolf01]

Ok, two things that I want to mention, before I start. 1) I ONLY mod with Xedit. I have the CK, but I'll be brutally honest... a) My computer hates it. b) I freaking hate it.

2) This is a realm that I myself am still trying to figure out. I've only been working on it a couple of days, and I haven't been using any tutorials.

 

Now, that said.

 

** New, standalone item. If you are creating an item that is based off an existing game item, the easiest way in xedit, is to right click the item, then choose export as new record. Then you have to change the name of the item, so that it will create a NON-identical item ID number for your new creation. After that, it will ask you what esm/esl/esp file to save it to. This is where you either choose an existing file that you loaded up, when you started xedit, or you create a new one. If you create a new one, you name the new file whatever you want to (Without including the name of the extension. EX- MyNewMod NOT MyNewMod.esp) and then you choose whether you want it to be an esp, esl, or esm. Avoid esm. Those are mainly just for master files. Like fallout itself. ESL are "ok" but I wouldn't start using those, until you know more about them, and about what you're doing. For now, stick with just regular esp files.

 

** Recipe. Yes, you have to make a recipe. I've been doing the same as I did with the New item. I right click an existing recipe and extract it as a NEW RECORD, into my mod esp. Then I change the names to what I have, for my mod, in the required slots in the file.

I'll be honest, this is damned hard to explain without using pictures. This 250kb image limit is kicking my arse for this!

 

HOWEVER, I'm sorry, but yes, it does require more than just making the recipe. The recipe only tells the game what is required, to make the item. The recipe DOES NOT tell the game HOW to make the item, as far as how to make the item into actual existence.

There are keywords, that you have to add to the item itself. I highly recommend looking at mods that already use the chem bench, or the awkr bench, to see what those keywords are. I can't remember exactly, but it's in a listing that says KYWD or KYWRD, then will say "chembench....." something. or "armorbench....." something. I think. Or something like that.

 

Now, once you have set it so that item knows what is supposed to make it, by adding the keywords for the benches to it....

You have to create a section, in the selected bench, where the item will be located. For this example, I would say ARMOR. Or UTILITY. Both of those are really simple to find when you are opening the chem bench in game. Utility being vastly less cluttered.

 

And sadly, this is as far as I get. Adding the entry into the bench itself is giving me headaches, and I haven't figured it out yet.

 

** Manual edits. xedit does not have anything that will automate your editing. I highly doubt that the CK does either. However, with xedit, it's easier. For some things, you can Copy and Paste the name that you need to use for several references. Having a spare notepad doc open to copy and paste to, can be a big asset. Xedit also has a very nice drop down menu system, once you get the hang of slowly single clicking the entry, where there is no text.

Once you get the hang of that, the drop down menu will show a list of EVERYTHING that the entry COULD contain. Depending on what files that you had xedit open, when you started. So what I'd do then.... say that what I'm looking for is "Myammo_50cal" With that drop menu open, I tap the M key on my keyboard, and the list will automaticall go to the first item in the list that starts with M.

 

*** Starting xedit- there's a couple of things to know about actually starting xedit. 1) It's going to list EVERY esp, esl, and esm file that you have in your data folder. For those of us that use a lot of mods, that can be a pretty long list.

After that list shows up, hold the CTRL key, and tap the A key on your keyboard. That will highlight EVERYTHING in the list.

- Now, left click on CHECK MARK next to one of the files in the list. With all of them highlighted, it will uncheck every single one of them, all at once. Trust me, you don't want this thing opening every single mod you have in your game.

- Now, single click the name of one of the files in the list. Not the check mark, the name of the file. Like "Fallout 4.esm" This will UN-highlight all of them. Now scroll thru the list, and tick (put checkmarks) into just the files that you know you will need, in order to work with. If you don't need any others, just tick Fallout4.esm (Btw, that one will automatically check itself, as soon as you check any other mods in the list.)

 

*** OMG the tips screens. The very first time that you use xedit, it will start out with giving you tips on how to use it. As far as I know, I don't know how to skip these at the start of the program for the first time. You literally have to manually click it off, and get thru all of them, before you can start using the program. There are TONS of them. It feels like you are clicking them over and over and over for 20 minutes, and you worry if you're going to break your mouse.

But after the first time, you do not have to repeat that again!

[taryl80]

StormWolf, you should have created maps with the old Halflife 1 Worldeditor (how was his name? "Worldcraft" or something like that?), then you would love the ck.

 

I love the ck. She is a so much better tool as the editors for Halflife 1 and 2.

 

In the old Halflife editors was it enough to make 1 tiny little error and the map would need a night to compile, until she is finished and I talk here really from tiny errors like setting something from the size of 1 pixel wrong and yes you had to compile your maps. I am so happy that the ck doesn't care if you set something wrong* and that you don't have to compile your maps. It was terrible to let your system run for 10h+ and let do nothing more as to compile a freaking map :|.

 

Also I like to see in 3d graphics on what I am working. With that I don't want to say that your tools are bad, but I think its the best to use a mix of it. The ck has its strength's and other tools also.

 

TL:DR I hope one day your computer hates the ck not anymore^^.

 

Edit: *Besides obvious mistakes like setting an object into another object of course. But that this could possible lead to errors knows everyone I guess.

Edited November 14, 2019 by taryl80

[Infamous95]

Question 1: Standalone from what I understand just means it does not edit any vanilla records so making something standalone requires you to make scripted leveled list. I believe theres a resource and tutorial for that somewhere on the nexus though I can't remember what its called best to search scripted leveled list resource. If you want to use the vanilla leveled lists you have to find the ones you want it to show in although this creates conflicts with mods that edit them also. I prefer using vanilla where I can because more scripts equals more performance loss. You can also just make it craftable which requires you to make a new recipe. You can follow what Stormwolf said up there in more detail your looking for the workbench keyword and then the section keyword. I also have a tutorial on making custom keyword sections so that could help you out a bit its under my beginners tutorials for modding page. Feel free to request some stuff (I only do xedit tutorials).

 

Question 2: I take it you're referring to Armorsmith Extended. Basically the first thing you want to do is balance the stats they should be fair and not overpowered. Second thing is adding the keywords for the features like ballistic weave and armorsmith ballistic weave, the ap_legendary keyword, VIS keywords. Gambit actually has a guide for this here: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6091/?tab=forum&topic_id=3744435 It might be a bit hard to follow but feel free to PM me if you have questions...I used to do this all the time till I gave up on that set of mods.

 

Question 3: There are scripts for xedit which can do certain things but if your using the CK I believe its all by hand. me personally I do everything by hand. It can be boring but atleast you know what was done and whether or not it was right.

 

Again feel free to PM me with any questions Im an xedit person only but I know how to pack BSA's and how to use material editor.