SSE NEED help and Advice on creating custom pet companion Mod Advice Needed Please

[KainThePheonix]

Hello. I hope this is the proper starting point. I would like to create a custom pet companion for SSE and I have never created a mod before. My favorite dog died last month and I am having difficulty moving on - he and I were very good friends and I love and miss him very much - the last 4 months have absolutely drained me emotionally. I am modding a new play through for SSE which I have never actually fully played through yet. Could someone please outline for a new mod creator the tools needed to create a custom pet follower from start to finish please? Or would someone have links to either a guide or a youtube video tutorial on how to do so?

I have the CK installed correctly, and I would like to actually use an existing picture I have of my dog to use in-game. What programs would I use and could anyone lead me through the steps to do so please?

[cumbrianlad]

Since you've got no replies as yet, I'll add a brief(ish) note, but not only can I not answer every aspect of this in detail because the post would be a word wall, I haven't got into modelling yet, so if that is needed I can't help at all with that aspect.

 

Briefly then, your task is huge, not least because you are wanting to start modding by making a new actor from scratch. That said, here's a list based on the assumption that you are happy to use either the vanilla dog model or the Dawnguard husky model...

 

1. You would be advised to instal SSE Creation Kit Fixes from Nexus. That makes CK64 much faster to load and improves it in many ways.

2. Next you absolutely need SSeedit. Download and instal that, then use the guide on Nexus to clean your master files (Skyrim.esm, Dawnguard.esm etc). Next you will need image editing software. I use Paint.Net, but Photoshop is fine too and does have some advantages. If you have or choose to get Paint.net, you will need to add the Normal Map Plus plugin as a minimum. In all honesty you're going to need a fair number of plugins to help with editing textures. Boltbait's package is a good start point.

3. You need an archive extraction tool. I use BAE (Bethesda Archive Extractor) and it works fine. Use this and extract every Bethesda .bsa from SSe data folder to a separate folder. You only need to extract the mesh and texture archives that contain what you need but you may as well extract the lot for future use.

4. You will also need to download Nifskope. I use version 2.0 Dev 7. You need this to add your textures to the models and to get an idea of how good your textures are before putting the new dog in-game.

4. Next you need to find the textures for the dog/husky. The dog uses 3, not sure about the husky. You may get away with just altering the diffuse (coloured) texture but you may need to alter the others too.

5. Add the textures to the models in Nifskope.

6. In CK you'll need to make a new race, a new skin, a new armor addon, a new actor and probably new packages, combat style and class.

7. I would advise against using anything vanilla for your follower to avoid clashes with other pet follower mods. To do this you'll need at least 1 new quest for your pet's dialogue. You may also need a second quest to handle 'hiring' the pet in the first place. You may also need a couple of new scripts to handle this. You'll certainly need some scripting in the quest fragments.

 

As I said, if you don't like the shape of vanilla animals you'd also need 3D modelling software but I can't talk about that and your task is big enough just to re-texture a standard model. Darkfox127 does some good tutorials and one on pet followers but I think he uses the vanilla framework. That's a bit easier but I'd strongly advise making a whole new framework (new quests and scripts).

 

If anyone else thinks my advice is missing anything or some steps could be easier, chip in!

[KainThePheonix]

Thank you very much for the reply cumbrianlad. I really appreciate it. I have the CK all setup and all the bug fixes for it installed and updated. I would like to design the dog with a custom mesh and texture. If possible I would like to see how I could import his picture using digital photos of him I have. He was such a very good boy. Even when you mentioned the "Whose a good boy?" his ass would start wagging ninety miles an hour he was so happy. I miss him, when I would mod the game he would come to sit at my side and in the dark at night I would not see him right away but I felt like I was being watched or looked at and I'll be darned every time I looked down to my left side there he was quietly waiting for me to give him pets after which he would begin bouncing my desk chair around scratching his ass and back. He was a very good boy, and a special friend. I miss him and he has been gone (today) an entire 60 days and it feels like just yesterday we were playing games and talking to him. He was a very vocal oriented dog and responded quite well to both commands and compliments but also questions.

I appreciate your help. Let me have a couple days and I will figure out some questions to ask you hopefully making my point more clear. For now though I would really like to design him after one of his pictures using a decent photo application, would it be photo shop or Blender or GIMP? If I knew what one I could download and at the minimum start prepping for the actual work. Thank you again I will keep track of this topic and watch for replies from you. Thank you again very, very much!