A Couple Noob Questions + Looking For "Mentor"

[Sylvanicus]

Part 1

 

Lately been working on the biggest/most complex mod I've attempted to date and I've run in to a handful of things I don't understand or don't know how to do. Now the title is a bit... incorrect. I wouldn't exactly consider myself a total noob, just to modding Skyrim. I've modded Morrowind and Oblivion pretty extensively but only now am I started to play around with Skyrim. Anyways. Here they are.

 

1. How on earth do you add a new faction? I can't seem to be able to actually create a new faction for NPCs, I can only add them to existing ones.
2. What is the purpose of "locations"? When editing/creating an interior cell or world space I can add a "location" to them. I've looked at these and don't quite see their point.
3. Is there an easy way to add "invisible" walls with the creation kit? Basically I don't want players leaping off the edge of a cliff in my mod and I was hoping to block it.
4. How can I get NPCs to perform certain "idle" animations such as sweeping, reading, mining, sitting at a desk, and most importantly some kind of "construction" animations? I think I may have to get the construction anims from Dragonborn as I don't recall anyone performing them in vanilla Skyrim.

Sorry if these have really obvious answers or are too complicated to be answer simply, but thank you for your help!

 

Part 2

 

In addition to this I'm looking for a bit of a "mentor" really. Someone who I can go to to ask whatever little questions I have if I get stuck, someone who can give me advice and feedback. I'd even be willing to "apprentice" for someone, basically help them make their mods so I can have a hands on learning experience.

 

If you'd be interested in that, let me know as well and we can talk.

 

Either way, thank you for your time.

[Ichikai]

3. Collision Markers, can use these for invisible walls afaik, Look for a C on the creation kit buttons.

4. AI packages, govern npc's behaviour http://www.creationkit.com/Package_Stack

 

that's all i can offer you, i only just started myself :P

[TheGreenLion]

For a new Faction: in the Object Window expand Character, highlight Faction, right click on the list that pops up to the right and select New and make your faction. I would definitely look up the CK wiki and check out their briefing on both Factions and Locations. Locations are most important for quests, but there are other uses for them.

 

Invisible walls are indeed easy to set up, simply create a Collision Plane/Cube and place it or however many you need to fence in the area so the player can't pass.

 

You have to either set up an AI package to allow NPCs to use Idle Markers, or specify which Idle Markers they use. You could also set up a Patrol to have them use certain Idle Markers in sequence. The two "construction" Idles I know of are HammerTable and HammerWall (not sure what the prefix/suffix would be but that's what the filter is for!)

 

Ninja'd by Ichikai! :ninja:

[Sylvanicus]

Thanks for your help so far guys!

[jet4571]

I dont really suggest making invisible walls unless going past that point would be leaving playable areas like an island in a worldspace or if you expand one of the cities and need to keep players inside it. With mods with places such as your cliff if a player wants to jump off of it then it really is up to them as it should be rather than COD bullcrap you can only go here. Adding invisible walls is imersion breaking to say the least and can cause problems such as tossing something over the cliff like a corpse or shouting some poor fool of an NPC off the cliff. If at the bottom of the cliff the player can get trapped then thats just bad design and should be fixed rather than a band aid called an invisible wall.

 

Locations are important for the keywords part. You create a dungeon and you want it clearable then you need a location. You make an inn and put a bard in it, you need a location with the inn keyword so they can sing.

[Noobo]

 

4. How can I get NPCs to perform certain "idle" animations such as sweeping, reading, mining, sitting at a desk, and most importantly some kind of "construction" animations? I think I may have to get the construction anims from Dragonborn as I don't recall anyone performing them in vanilla Skyrim

Ichikai is half right. You need idlemarkers as well as a package which tells the NPC which markers to use.

Sweeping and reading are idlemarkers, you probably dont want a guard sweeping so changing the marker's ownership allows only certain NPCs/ factions to use it

Sitting at a desk requires a chair + a AI package which either tells them to sit on the chair (find the 'Sit on Target' package template and select the chair as the reference), or sandbox (the npc walks around and uses all furniture)

The construction animation (HammerWallMarker, HammerTableMarker) is a furniture marker not an idlemarker

Use the Filter search bar in the Object Window to track these things down.

 

A quick note on collision primitives, there is a plane and there is a box - the plane is just the 'c' in a square (icon) it is 2d so you cant adjust the depth. The 'C' in a cube (icon) is a box which you can adjust the depth of the primitive.

 

you need to click the 'C' icon, and select any object in render window - the cube then takes objects' dimensions i.e if u select a bridge your primitive will be a long rectangle, if u selected a crate it will be a square.

If at any time you feel the need to change the primitive's dimensions again select it and press 2 to bring up the gizmo

 

I'd be glad to answer your questions on the CK, just flick me a PM.

Edited February 21, 2013 by Noobo