Stumped by Questbuilding.

[QaxeIsKaze]

I'm new to modding. Mine involve locations: battles, dungeons, etc. I've made the very basic level of quests, once that send the player to "go kill so-in-so". I have a bit of learner's block when it comes to text and numbers, but I truly want to learn, understand and do more. While I have a basic grasp of Aliases, stages, etc. I know next to nothing about scripting. I'm seeking the help of more experienced modders who don't mind me asking questions when I don't "get it" right away.

 

I have a seemingly simple quest I'd like to create. It involves a get-in-faction event and something of a large group gathering. I have a mod called "Icicle Valley". It's a town mod that has a castle, and while it may be cliche', the goal is to let the player have the castle when the enemy boss inside is dead. More than this, I want to give the player a bit of fanfare at the end.

 

I have gotten as far as this: player speaks to an npc, gets the quest to kill badguy, kills the badguy, loots the badguy and retrieves some item, comes back and the item he/she was sent to retrieve is removed from inventory. This is where I am stuck. Where I'd like to go from here is seen in something like the Bard's College main quest where a group gathers, the player puts something in the fire, and gets in the faction.

 

I grasp the concept but I don't understand what is happening on the script end. Could someone enlighten me here?

 

My rough plan is something like,

10 talk to contact-npc,

20 kill the Jarl,

30 take evidence that he's dead (a heart would do)

40 talk to contact-npc

(I did this much)

50 told to attend ceremony

60 attend ceremony where towns people all attend

70 put the evil Jarl's heart into a fire, etc.

80 you're pronounced Jarl of Icicle Valley, get-in-faction, etc.

 

Even if you don't want to spell it out for me, could someone at least point me in the right direction? Just looking at other quests isn't clarifying anything for me.

 

Thanks

Edited December 5, 2012 by Ahondara

[huntsman2310]

You've gotten farther then I have, mate.

 

I've been working on a few Riverwood quests on and off for the last few months and I have no clue how to get the player to kill some deer and discover a dead body nearby.

[acidzebra]

That's a fairly complex thing you want there, and not really suitable for starting quest/scriptbuilders.

 

Quest MS05 (main "Tending the Flames" quest) starts up another quest (MS05KingOlafsFestival) at stage 255. This is the quest you should be looking at.

 

Stage 0 of that quest moves all the aliases into place. Stage 10 starts the scene (defined in scenes - and this is a whopper of a scene with 8 phases and actions for a ton of actors ). Stage 15 sets the effigy on fire. Stage 20 prepares to shut everything down and advances the parent quest, and stage 200 ends it.

Edited December 5, 2012 by acidzebra

[QaxeIsKaze]

"Dare to be Badass" I like that!

 

Huntsman2310, in your quest does someone ask the player to kill the deer? A good video by B.I.S. on starting quests is available on YouTube (

) He teaches the following formula: "Talk to npc, get assigned a task (kill somebody), complete task, return to npc." What I dislike about this is that we must record our voice and use it in the quest.

 

I had a lot of trouble with sound, so I ended up starting my npc DEAD and a placing a journal by his side that tells the story of what's happening. That works fine for the start, but still doesn't get the entire town to come cheer for the player, and get the player to be owner of the city which is my ultimate goal.

 

Also, dunno if it will help you, but here is a link to a tutorial that teaches how to use a trigger box to force a quest to start.: http://www.theengineeringguild.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=771:skyrim-quest-start-of-game-bug-fix&catid=20&Itemid=193 Even if it can't help you now, it's a good page to bookmark!

[QaxeIsKaze]

AcidZebra, thanks for pointing me to the correct quest. I'll look at it now.

 

Part of my problem here is how to know what questions to actually ask. "What script do I need to write?" is really vague.

 

I'm off to check this out.

[QaxeIsKaze]

Yes, this is the quest I was looking at. Sure it's hard, but everything I've done in CK has been something I've never done before, so I'm willing to do my best. Anyway, MS05KingOlafsFestival is going in the right direction. Ceremony, audience, bards play music, burn an object, get in faction. Perfect. It doesn't change the castle to be a player home, but this quest is the primary concern because it will make the mod more fun for most (?) players.

 

I understand the general idea of creating a Quest Alias for each npc who will attend a given ceremony, and understand the idea of moving attendees to their appropriate markers via

 alias_Kayd.GetRef().moveto(alias_KaydMarker.GetRef())

but have no idea why other npc use the code

alias_Bendt.GetRef().moveto(alias_move2.GetRef())

or if I will need it in my own quest.

 

What adds to confusion in studying such a quest is that it is connected to the greater quest, "Ms05" and in stage 10 it makes reference to it

;Stage set to stat MS05KingOlafsFestivalScene MS05KingOlafsFestival_scene.Start() 

 

Knowing which parts I need to mimmick and which parts I need to ignore is a bit tough.

 

Also, in this particular quest there is an item of clothing, thrown into the fire that I don't see mentioned in the Quest Stages. How to get it removed from the player's inventory is... something I will need to discover.

 

So at this point in the quest, the player has killed the boss, and the boss's his heart in his inventory...If you were in my position, where in this quest would you go next? Set up all the xmarker headings in the place where the ceremony will happen?

[acidzebra]

What adds to confusion in studying such a quest is that it is connected to the greater quest, "Ms05" and in stage 10 it makes reference to it

 

Actually, no, that is where it tells the scene to start:

MS05KingOlafsFestival_scene.Start()

(the scene defined in MS05KingOlafsFestival)

 

I think the whole thing about the clothing item (general Tullius' coat) was cut from the quest, since I haven't seen that on any playthrough.

 

Knowing which parts I need to mimmick and which parts I need to ignore is a bit tough.

 

For now, ignore the parts which you don't get. Use regular xmarker named for your PCs and start adding the proper aliases, then telling your NPCs to move there at a certain stage. Keep the main structure - your main quest calls your festivalquest at the appropriate time.

 

Debug your quest through the console - setstage, startquest, stopquest, and sqv.

http://www.creationkit.com/SetStage

 

Removing items from the player can be accomplished through script

http://www.creationk...ObjectReference

Edited December 5, 2012 by acidzebra

[QaxeIsKaze]

Forward motion is exciting.

Just checking in so you don't think I ran off scared ;)

I have created new audience markers and packages, and a generic "applause package"(very curious how THIS one works), as well as placed the "ceremony enable marker" and a ceremony trigger box. These things are the easy part so I did these first.

 

Quick question, is there any reason I shouldn't put "Kill the Jarl" and "Attend your ceremony" in the same quest? In MS05 there are several quests which is why I'm asking.

 

AcidZebra: yes, mention of stealing Tullius' Coat gave me pause, because I've done the Bard quest several times and never stolen anything like that. Just an abandoned part of the quest. And thanks for your help steering me in the right direction.

[QaxeIsKaze]

Looking at the quest MS05 which I am using as my model, it looks like there are actually several MS05's. The main MS05 quest is the one that tells the player to attend the ceremony, but the ceremony actually has its own quest. Is there any reason I need to separate "kill the boss" with "go to your ceremony"?

 

At this point, I have a quest that starts with the reading of a journal, progresses to the death of the "Boss" and ends with you giving the boss's heart to a contact NPC. I would like to extend the quest to a new stage that says something like

"Upon vanquishing (the boss npc) I'm to become Lord of Icicle Valley. I should attend the ceremony in my honor." or something to that effect. But I'm not sure if there is a NEED for me to separate these two quests into 2 files like has been done with MS05. Any advice on this point?

[QaxeIsKaze]

Okay, so I didn't need 2 quests.

I am to the point where the player is told "attend a ceremony in your honor". I have all the townsfolk markers, packages, quest aliases and the npcs' marker aliases set up...but no way to get them to the place. Tried a trigger box, but they all show up before the quest has progressed anywhere near the point when they are supposed to show up.