Anyone else feel armour and weapon mods ought to NOT be craftable or f

[Bart95]

EDIT: Derp title, meant to be -'craftable or found easily'

 

I know this might sound "ungrateful" to folks who've put loads of effort into unique models, textures and so on for your weapon or armour. But I would -really- prefer it myself if the armour or weapon was much harder to obtain if it has a cool appearance or is very powerful compared to most items in the game.

 

The issue I have is that 99% of armour and weapon mods are "Oh you just craft it, no biggie" or "Oh I put it in a chest in the middle of <very well-cisited area and hard to miss location>" which to me just seems a bit....I dunno, boring? Uninspired? I mean, taking the Silverdragon armour for example, AWESOME model, AWESOME textures, AWESOME stats aaaaand....you craft it. Or find it in a chest and the location of said chest is given quite easily in the mod description. I'd much rather have an armour mod which instead has a courier deliver a note to you, or you find a book in a temple that gives clues to the whereabouts of the new item.

 

It doesn't even need a quest OR a new region! In Oblivion I got the Keyblade weapon pack (Don't shoot me just yet JRPG haters!) and I was surprised to find that the mod, instead of just plonking a chest with all the weapons in the middle of the Imperial City, instead dropped a book by a statue which gave a brief backstory (Without entirely breaking immersion to boot) of each weapon and clues leading to the whereabouts of each one. I found it great fun using the book to try and figure out where each of the keyblades were. No quest log, no markers, no new areas, no new ANYTHING, the weapons were just hidden in the world and I had to find them using the book.

 

Then I come to Skyrim where, as said, nearly every armour and weapon mod is just plonked under the crafting list or put in a chest in whiterun. *yawn* As said though, I do adore some armour and weapon mods, and a few ARE implemented well (See Immersive Armour/Weapons) but I just give a gentle sigh when I see yet another fantastic new item mod where the author just decided to make it incredibly easy to earn their items, make us WORK for your gear, make it a reward, make us really find downloading your mod worthwhile rather than just mucking around in some OP armour for a few hours then stuffing it in a chest later on! I haven't made a mod but I know how to place items in specific cells and areas in the world, really ANYTHING but slotting it under crafting or a city-chest is better.

 

The above is just my opinion though, does anyone else feel the same way? Why or why not?

Edited March 18, 2013 by Bart95

[Lisnpuppy]

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Making_an_item_craftable_for_Skyrim

 

You could also learn to do it yourself. I am trying to learn the in and out of the creation kit myself currently.

[ponyboy10]

I hear you, but [and this is coming from someone who's never made a mod], I think it has to be much much more involved to make a whole quest around a piece of equipment. You would need to go from doing some artwork and stats modding to having to map out a whole story, etc.

 

Heck, since it's role-playing, you could just imagine your own questline and play through it :)

[BrotherBob]

Your absolutely right. But the thing is that a lot of armor/weapon modders funnel most of their time into modding the armor/weapon. It's a ton of work to get it going. Then, to have them make a quest would seem a bit much. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to make a quest, but I'd say that learning the ins and outs of making a half-decent quest (let alone a questline) rivals learning to half-decently retexture or make meshes.

 

Of course, your other suggestion of placing a book/journal somewhere in the world that hints to the hidden location(s) of the new equipment seems pretty smart. That would certainly be less effort than having to make the equipment craftable.

 

But, of course, there is still one problem. If only one copy of the equipment exists in the world, that becomes an issue for players who want to have an army of followers wearing the same thing.

[Bart95]

Your absolutely right. But the thing is that a lot of armor/weapon modders funnel most of their time into modding the armor/weapon. It's a ton of work to get it going. Then, to have them make a quest would seem a bit much. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to make a quest, but I'd say that learning the ins and outs of making a half-decent quest (let alone a questline) rivals learning to half-decently retexture or make meshes.

 

Of course, your other suggestion of placing a book/journal somewhere in the world that hints to the hidden location(s) of the new equipment seems pretty smart. That would certainly be less effort than having to make the equipment craftable.

 

But, of course, there is still one problem. If only one copy of the equipment exists in the world, that becomes an issue for players who want to have an army of followers wearing the same thing.

 

Myes, I suppose that is the difference between Skyrim and Oblivion. Personally I rarely use followers (Thank you Lydia for blocking doors and stopping me being able to backpedal out of the way of a large axe heading towards my face).

 

Is there perhaps a way to only be able to craft an item once you've completed an associated quest or read a book or something? Can still go through a neat little journey to find the new items but then you can craft it for followers afterwards.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Bart95

[ponyboy10]

Lol @ the Lydia comment. I'm constantly sheathing/unsheathing my weapons to make her move out of the dang way.

 

For the crafting, possibly you could require some unique item to craft the weapon/armor. Then that unique item could only be found on a given quest or in a particular chest, etc.

 

I agree that just adding short notes or books in various places could accomplish a lot. Even some of the "stock" quests are like that.

[BrotherBob]

 

Your absolutely right. But the thing is that a lot of armor/weapon modders funnel most of their time into modding the armor/weapon. It's a ton of work to get it going. Then, to have them make a quest would seem a bit much. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to make a quest, but I'd say that learning the ins and outs of making a half-decent quest (let alone a questline) rivals learning to half-decently retexture or make meshes.

 

Of course, your other suggestion of placing a book/journal somewhere in the world that hints to the hidden location(s) of the new equipment seems pretty smart. That would certainly be less effort than having to make the equipment craftable.

 

But, of course, there is still one problem. If only one copy of the equipment exists in the world, that becomes an issue for players who want to have an army of followers wearing the same thing.

 

Myes, I suppose that is the difference between Skyrim and Oblivion. Personally I rarely use followers (Thank you Lydia for blocking doors and stopping me being able to backpedal out of the way of a large axe heading towards my face).

 

Is there perhaps a way to only be able to craft an item once you've completed an associated quest or read a book or something? Can still go through a neat little journey to find the new items but then you can craft it for followers afterwards.

There is probably a number of ways to do that (be able to craft a certain item only after the completion of a certain quest). I don't have too much experience, so I can only think of one: upon completing the quest, it adds a perk to the player that allows crafting items of a relevant category (similar to how spending a perk point on "Daedric Smithing" gives you the ability to craft Daedric items).

[nosisab]

That's a double edge blade... One take Oblivion's Midas Magic with elaborated quests to get items to create the spells, that's wonderful of course but soon enough there were those asking for a way to cheat the whole thing and get them at once.

 

In skyrim xilver just "hide" a container at Riverwood with tomes to all them. I know that may be frustrating to an author to put so much effort in quests and whatever procedure to make "worthy" the quest for the resource, but... c'est la vie.

 

In time: that's not a spoil since that way to get the spells is explicit in the mod's description.

[BrotherBob]

nosisab makes a good point. I think that it might be best to make a "quest" way of getting the equipment, but also a "cheat" way as well. I can't believe I didn't think of writing that before, given that one of my mods does just that.

[dwiss]

With all due respect to the OP's intend - but thats exactly the point that isnt understood here:

 

There are several groups of modders - you have to be careful which group you are pointing at. There are 2 major groups with a shitload of work - the ones who do entire armors or lets say 'things' in general. The models, the texturing, the testing etc takes a lot of time. The other group is the group adding gameplay in form of quests and dialogs, overhauls etc. That is a lot of scripting, connecting shitloads of things to each other to make things logical and enjoyable.

 

What you are asking for is basically: make armors like DLC's with full content and round everything up. But modders dont work for money - most of the really good ones here use their sparetime and do it for fun. But every artist - and i like to call each and everyone of them an artist - needs to be rewarded for the effort. So thats where the release happens - and in case of armor/item mods it is basically too easy to get everything you want with a few simple lines in the console.

 

So if you really wanted to have those things as a reward the best approach would be to create your own 'imaginative' way of achieving it as earlier posted - RPG means roleplaying ;) Or do what i did myself - start learning a few very basic things about the CK and modify the mods for your own usage to suit your gameplay.

 

Regarding your crafting argument - i personally and many others actually prefer mods that are finished up this way instead of having tons of stupid containers and boxes cluttering the world. If it is craftable i have the freedom to decide if and when i want to use it without being forced to find a stupid box somewhere.

 

A last tip to solve your issue regarding the crafting with an already existing mod - its called econmics of skyrim. There is a setup that restricts usage of workspaces etc - so you actually have to pay blacksmith etc to use their workbenches smelters or other equipment. I felt it was too easy to just create everything - since i am playing with that mod it feels a lot more complicated and i have to make an effort to get things done myself. With those basics of the Creation Kit you could actually expand that mod easily to support custom armors as one of the options is to order things to be made by a blacksmith instead of creating it yourself.

Edited March 19, 2013 by dwiss