Guide to Homebrew Mods for FNV?

[OhNoUgh]

Hey everyone, first time ever posting a question on here. Long time mod user but I have never worked on or authored any mods of my own nor have any idea how to begin or what tools are needed. I have been recently falling back into the wonders of restoring and improving Fallout: New Vegas. As I was trying to overhaul the creatures I found 'Monster Mod' by Dogtown. I really like the creepy / horror variety of monsters that this mod adds- but its got a LOT of creatures and some of them are just not to my taste and I am hoping there is some way to select specific creature spawns and exclude some of the robots and aliens for a more mutated / wasteland vibe. I love the idea of creating a version of the game with more mutant and freakish abominations than normal humans. A few of the models though are just a bit over the top or low res for my liking - not at all to insult the author- a lot of the models are perfect and I doubt I could do better than they have. So I'm looking for enough info or guidance to start 'editing' or downsizing the mod and creating a smaller version for my persona use- perhaps even uploading it with the permission of the original author or giving it to him as an alternate option on the mod page. Where do I start? What do I need? Is this going to be a simple comb through and cut? or will I have to become a bonafied mod creator to accomplish this for my fussy brain?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[dubiousintent]

Suggest you start by looking over the sections of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of what sort of learning curve you are getting into. There are usually tutorials linked at the beginning of each section, along with "Tips" from experienced mod creators.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 12, 2021 by dubiousintent

[OhNoUgh]

Awesome, thank you :smile:

[Jamar1978]

What you most likely want to do is delete the unwanted creatures. This should also remove them from spawnlists and world. Then you can save .esp and anyone can use the file after monster mod for same results.

 

As an option for geck manual there is also youtube full of tutorials. Look for stuff with NPC and creatures. Creating your own companion is always nice way to start with geck.

[OhNoUgh]

I have been playing with it and by 'delete' I assume you mean open the creatures tab, highlight a guy and then delete? This deletes all spawns for that creature right? I also figured out how to make minor blance tweaks to them and change their disposition (hostile / neutral etc) I hit save and then it spat out a .esp after the mod. I'm wondering if there is a better way of doing this? technically I didn't downsize the mod right? If this is as far as I can get without screwing up the creatures I do want then that is fine and I am happy with it. If possible though I would like to delete them from the mod file and thus lower the size and memory of the mod (alter or make anew .bsa and or .esm). I'm not totally sure how it works but it sounds like this way the game loads the full mod and all those assets I don't want and then just blocks them at last minute- cumulatively this sort of thing could take more memory and performance away from my game right? Id like to mod New Vegas as thoroughly as I can and keep each mod as small and efficient as possible.

Thanks for your tips- I have found some decent videos on YouTube but they don't often go too in-depth. I appreciate your patience and help for a noob like myself :smile:

Edited February 13, 2021 by OhNoUgh

[JimboUK]

Don't delete things, if a script calls on something that has been deleted the game will crash, instead disable them by opening their properties and checking "Initially disabled".