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Chorrol.com _ Skyrim _ Making Player Characters into NPCs
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 12 2012, 05:11 PM
I found this little tidbit on the official forums, and thought I would share it for those people who use imaginary mods that include other characters in their games. Here is a way that you can create a character, save their face, and then use that face for an NPC which you create (or replace the face of an existing NPC). So you could make Darnand, save his face, replace Marcurio's face with Darnand's, and then change Marcurio's name to Darnand. You instantly have Darnand the follower. Or you could just make an entirely new NPC with that face. Or you could take your old player characters and turn them into followers for your latest character.
Just adjust the sliders like normal and get the type of face you want. When you're done, open the console and type SPF <insert a name here>. The saved SPF file will default into your game's root folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Skyrim) Open the CK and go to the Character Gen Parts tab and click the "Import" button. Now you have an NPC with the desired face that you want in the game.
I've made a lot of unique looking NPC's and followers using this method.
Posted by: King Coin Oct 12 2012, 05:16 PM
<snip>
Thanks for sharing this!
Posted by: Grits Oct 21 2012, 10:25 PM
This is fantastic! I would of course want to put everyone as an NPC in everyone else's games, and it sounds not too difficult.
The next Grits computer is not even on the horizon yet, but there's a lot to look forward to! 
Posted by: King Coin Jun 13 2013, 12:45 AM
Anyone know if this method could be used to transfer a character's face to another savegame?
Posted by: SubRosa Jun 13 2013, 12:59 AM
Sort of. If you save the face as above, then open the file with notepad, you will it looks like this:
Race:00013746
Slider0:-0.500000
Slider1:-0.300000
Slider2:-0.500000
Slider3:-0.300000
Slider4:0.000000
Slider5:0.000000
Slider6:-0.600000
Slider7:-0.800000
Slider8:-0.000000
Slider9:0.000000
Slider10:0.100000
Slider11:-0.300000
Slider12:0.100000
Slider13:-0.300000
Slider14:0.500000
Slider15:-0.600000
Slider16:0.100000
Slider17:-0.100000
Those are the slider settings (and there is more after). You can print that out, and then use that to manually set the sliders for your second character using showracemenu. As I understand 0 is dead center, -10 is full left, -0.5 is five ticks over from the left, etc... all the way over to 10 at full right.
Obviously this would be easier if you use one of those mods that displays the numbers for each slider position.
Posted by: King Coin Jun 13 2013, 01:11 AM
Better than nothing, thanks SubRosa!
Posted by: Pseron Wyrd Jun 13 2013, 03:28 AM
I used to do this a lot in Morrowind and Oblivion. After a character's story was over I'd "retire" her as an NPC. I used to make unique houses for all of my characters and after their retirement I'd put them in these houses and they'd putter around their gardens for the rest of eternity.
Some of my characters would visit older character from previous games. I sometimes used this as a way of explaining how a character knew certain facts about the game world that I couldn't otherwise explain: she learned it during a visit to an older character.
I haven't done this in Skyrim yet. But I'm sure I will.
Posted by: mALX Sep 2 2013, 06:46 AM
I used to do this a lot in Morrowind and Oblivion. After a character's story was over I'd "retire" her as an NPC. I used to make unique houses for all of my characters and after their retirement I'd put them in these houses and they'd putter around their gardens for the rest of eternity.
Some of my characters would visit older character from previous games. I sometimes used this as a way of explaining how a character knew certain facts about the game world that I couldn't otherwise explain: she learned it during a visit to an older character.
I haven't done this in Skyrim yet. But I'm sure I will.
How did you convert the Player character into an NPC? I have a save file I downloaded that I am hoping to make into an NPC in my game, can I do it in the Construction Set (Oblvion).
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 22 2013, 08:46 PM
How did you convert the Player character into an NPC? I have a save file I downloaded that I am hoping to make into an NPC in my game, can I do it in the Construction Set (Oblvion).
How did I forget about this? There is a way you can do it without Wyre Bash in Skyrim, but not Oblivion. I just found my notes in my backup folder.
Load up the save for the character whose face you want to use.
Open the console.
Select the player character (this should show as an id of 14)
Type spf <filename you want> and press enter. It makes a file called <filename>.npc in your Skyrim directory.
Load up the creation kit and make a copy of an NPC of the same race you want your new NPC to be. You can just open up an existing NPC and change the ID. Or in the screen before that right click on an NPC and select Duplicate. Then open the Duplicate and change the ID.
In your new NPC screen, go to the Character Gen Parts tab (You will have to scroll all the way to the right in the tabs)
Click import in the top right, and select the file you just saved before.
Click Ok on the bottom left.
Now you have an NPC with the same face as the player character you had in the game. Do whatever you want to do to make them a follower, equip them, place them in the game, etc...
Save the plugin and remember to enable it.
Edit: D'oh! I think you were looking to do it in Oblivion only. Sadly, this won't work in Oblivion though.
Oh well, its out here in case anyone wants to do it in Skyrim.
Posted by: mALX Sep 23 2013, 12:03 PM
How did you convert the Player character into an NPC? I have a save file I downloaded that I am hoping to make into an NPC in my game, can I do it in the Construction Set (Oblvion).
How did I forget about this? There is a way you can do it without Wyre Bash in Skyrim, but not Oblivion. I just found my notes in my backup folder.
Load up the save for the character whose face you want to use.
Open the console.
Select the player character (this should show as an id of 14)
Type spf <filename you want> and press enter. It makes a file called <filename>.npc in your Skyrim directory.
Load up the creation kit and make a copy of an NPC of the same race you want your new NPC to be. You can just open up an existing NPC and change the ID. Or in the screen before that right click on an NPC and select Duplicate. Then open the Duplicate and change the ID.
In your new NPC screen, go to the Character Gen Parts tab (You will have to scroll all the way to the right in the tabs)
Click import in the top right, and select the file you just saved before.
Click Ok on the bottom left.
Now you have an NPC with the same face as the player character you had in the game. Do whatever you want to do to make them a follower, equip them, place them in the game, etc...
Save the plugin and remember to enable it.
Edit: D'oh! I think you were looking to do it in Oblivion only. Sadly, this won't work in Oblivion though.
Oh well, its out here in case anyone wants to do it in Skyrim.OOH! Thank you so ... GAAAAAH! It doesn't work in Oblivion?
"I need a hug..."
*mALX runs away crying*
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 23 2013, 06:46 PM
How did you convert the Player character into an NPC? I have a save file I downloaded that I am hoping to make into an NPC in my game, can I do it in the Construction Set (Oblvion).
How did I forget about this? There is a way you can do it without Wyre Bash in Skyrim, but not Oblivion. I just found my notes in my backup folder.
Load up the save for the character whose face you want to use.
Open the console.
Select the player character (this should show as an id of 14)
Type spf <filename you want> and press enter. It makes a file called <filename>.npc in your Skyrim directory.
Load up the creation kit and make a copy of an NPC of the same race you want your new NPC to be. You can just open up an existing NPC and change the ID. Or in the screen before that right click on an NPC and select Duplicate. Then open the Duplicate and change the ID.
In your new NPC screen, go to the Character Gen Parts tab (You will have to scroll all the way to the right in the tabs)
Click import in the top right, and select the file you just saved before.
Click Ok on the bottom left.
Now you have an NPC with the same face as the player character you had in the game. Do whatever you want to do to make them a follower, equip them, place them in the game, etc...
Save the plugin and remember to enable it.
Edit: D'oh! I think you were looking to do it in Oblivion only. Sadly, this won't work in Oblivion though.
Oh well, its out here in case anyone wants to do it in Skyrim.OOH! Thank you so ... GAAAAAH! It doesn't work in Oblivion?
"I need a hug..."
*mALX runs away crying*
Sorry.
I didn't realize that until a few hours after I posted it.Posted by: mALX Sep 24 2013, 04:32 AM
*snip*
OOH! Thank you so ... GAAAAAH! It doesn't work in Oblivion?
"I need a hug..."
*mALX runs away crying*
Sorry.
I didn't realize that until a few hours after I posted it.I am going to get the save up if I can, take a bunch of screenshots, and wait till technology catches up with my Dunmer, lol.
Thank you so much, SubRosa <3
Posted by: Grits Sep 29 2013, 06:03 PM
OK, I used SPF <insert a name here> in Skyrim to create a rudimentary Darnand. I started off changing a copy of Marcurio, but it ended up being easier to just make him as a new NPC and give him the spells he’s supposed to use. I’ll be better at it the next time. I think I’ll do Jerric next, maybe as a Spellsword like Belrand or as a custom NPC class. Anyway importing the face is so easy in Skyrim! It works exactly as you described.
I have a lot to learn about factions and AI packages, but Darnand the NPC took on his first group of bandits exactly the way he is supposed to. 
Thank you very much for posting this! Now it’s a whole new game for me.
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 29 2013, 06:21 PM
The factions and AI packages are much easier than they first look. There are some default sandbox packages that I always use for NPCs. The number at the end is how far they will wander around. So DefaultSandboxCurrentLocation256 will keep them close.
The factions are partly whose 'side' they are on. If an NPC is based in a particular city, they should belong to that city's faction. But more importantly, it determines who has the rights to pick up or use things. Typically the interior of buildings is owned by a faction, not an individual person. Then everyone in that faction can use the beds, eat the food, etc... without it being a crime.
The same is true of merchants and their loot chests. Their chest is owned by a faction, and then the merchant is added to the faction. This way multiple NPCs can have ownership of the same merchant chest, so that if one dies another can take over.
There are also factions that determine the services an NPC can offer. Merchants must be in the JobMerchantFaction. Trainers have to be in the JobTrainerFaction, and another more specific faction of the skill they offer, like JobTrainerEnchantingFaction. People you can marry have to be in the PotentialMarriageFaction, etc...
Posted by: King Coin Sep 29 2013, 06:25 PM
I've been thinking of making Aravi a follower, but it'll require a lot of work for me. She has a lot of rules about her character that I'd have to find some way of enforcing. I'd also have to make a new race so I can package her meshes and textures without making everyone download a bunch of mods for her to look right.
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 29 2013, 07:58 PM
I've been thinking of making Aravi a follower, but it'll require a lot of work for me. She has a lot of rules about her character that I'd have to find some way of enforcing. I'd also have to make a new race so I can package her meshes and textures without making everyone download a bunch of mods for her to look right.
Going to play Kharjo as a player character then?
Posted by: King Coin Sep 29 2013, 09:05 PM
Or just a new character without leaving Aravi behind.
Posted by: Grits Oct 18 2013, 07:21 PM
http://i.imgur.com/zJccvtc.png
I've found that giving them no AI package at all still lets them sandbox in the immediate area, which is fine for my followers that I'm gathering up. A little research has me almost ready to make Denelle the Rorikstead merchant and Mikke the Dawnguard follower. They'll need something to do other than stand around.
But first I need to make NPC Abiene and Lildereth. They both need special hair, which I think I can manage. Plus Abiene is going to be a merchant to give her something non-decorative to do. There's a mod that would let her heal other characters as an NPC, but I fear for my struggling laptop. Some day...
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 18 2013, 07:31 PM
http://i.imgur.com/zJccvtc.png
I've found that giving them no AI package at all still lets them sandbox in the immediate area, which is fine for my followers that I'm gathering up. A little research has me almost ready to make Denelle the Rorikstead merchant and Mikke the Dawnguard follower. They'll need something to do other than stand around.
But first I need to make NPC Abiene and Lildereth. They both need special hair, which I think I can manage. Plus Abiene is going to be a merchant to give her something non-decorative to do. There's a mod that would let her heal other characters as an NPC, but I fear for my struggling laptop. Some day...
Its Reservoir Dogs of Skyrim!
Are you going to make a new location for Mikke called Green River? Maybe the Green River Inn?
You could make Abiene a spell merchant and Restoration trainer.
Posted by: Grits Oct 18 2013, 09:39 PM
Those are great ideas! Abiene would be a natural for a Restoration trainer, and that's a way for me to learn about editing dialog (I think). I'd like to give Jerric one of Stenvar's lines rather than the one he uses. Abiene will make me figure out how to do it. 
I have my eye on a nice spot in Falkreath. Might be a good place to learn how to make a building for Mikke. And Roggi, of course. It should be easy to add a copy of him. Plus some dogs and kids... Oh, and maybe a river. 
I'm trying to think of where the Khajiit caravans don't go. That would be a good place for J'Shanji and Shuvesse. If it was somewhere warm, of course. Oh! They could run a shop in Green River.
*cancels all other plans*
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 18 2013, 10:11 PM
Those are great ideas! Abiene would be a natural for a Restoration trainer, and that's a way for me to learn about editing dialog (I think). I'd like to give Jerric one of Stenvar's lines rather than the one he uses. Abiene will make me figure out how to do it.
I have my eye on a nice spot in Falkreath. Might be a good place to learn how to make a building for Mikke. And Roggi, of course. It should be easy to add a copy of him. Plus some dogs and kids... Oh, and maybe a river.
I'm trying to think of where the Khajiit caravans don't go. That would be a good place for J'Shanji and Shuvesse. If it was somewhere warm, of course. Oh! They could run a shop in Green River.
*cancels all other plans*
I have never seen the caravans in Morthal or Falkreath. Put Green River somewhere in Falkreath Hold, maybe in that area southwest of the big lake?
Posted by: King Coin Nov 2 2013, 06:02 PM
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wtpruqwtwwb4o0g/Screenshot%202013-11-02%2011.29.07.png
I made her a custom race so that she can have her spotted fur without requiring me to make all the other Khajiit in the world spotted. It was actually a lot of work, but enlightening on how these things in the Creation Kit interact.
I'm trying to think of where to put her in the world. One idea is to have her follow Kharjo's caravan. The other is to make her a random encounter as you travel on the road.
EDIT:
These are the tutorials I used to make the custom race:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_a_custom_race_for_Skyrim
http://grotto.moddersrealm.com/index.php?topic=12723.0
Read the second tutorial when you get to "Add the required Armour and Armour addons" in the first tutorial if you have custom textures.
Posted by: mALX Nov 2 2013, 06:16 PM
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wtpruqwtwwb4o0g/Screenshot%202013-11-02%2011.29.07.png
I made her a custom race so that she can have her spotted fur without requiring me to make all the other Khajiit in the world spotted. It was actually a lot of work, but enlightening on how these things in the Creation Kit interact.
I'm trying to think of where to put her in the world. One idea is to have her follow Kharjo's caravan. The other is to make her a random encounter as you travel on the road.
EDIT:
These are the tutorials I used to make the custom race:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_a_custom_race_for_Skyrim
http://grotto.moddersrealm.com/index.php?topic=12723.0
Read the second tutorial when you get to "Add the required Armour and Armour addons" in the first tutorial if you have custom textures.
These links are AWESOME! I have favorited the Oblivion side of this site! I love the screen of the Aravi follower, Awesome! Really have to figure out how to do it in Oblivion, there has to be a way!
Posted by: SubRosa Nov 2 2013, 08:39 PM
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wtpruqwtwwb4o0g/Screenshot%202013-11-02%2011.29.07.png
I made her a custom race so that she can have her spotted fur without requiring me to make all the other Khajiit in the world spotted. It was actually a lot of work, but enlightening on how these things in the Creation Kit interact.
I'm trying to think of where to put her in the world. One idea is to have her follow Kharjo's caravan. The other is to make her a random encounter as you travel on the road.
EDIT:
These are the tutorials I used to make the custom race:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_a_custom_race_for_Skyrim
http://grotto.moddersrealm.com/index.php?topic=12723.0
Read the second tutorial when you get to "Add the required Armour and Armour addons" in the first tutorial if you have custom textures.
I created a new race from scratch for Persephone. It was a lot of work. Especially creating a new headpart for every eye color, every hair style, every eyebrow, etc...
Those were good links you provided. The first one especially goes into a lot of detail. I used it when I created my Deadwalker race for Persephone. It helped me with creating the armor addons for the hands, feet, and head.
Putting Aravi in Kharjo's caravans sounds like an excellent idea. Or you might put her in Castle Dawnguard, but that would require having the DLC active all the time (I keep it on all the time for all my characters, but I realize you might not want to).
Posted by: King Coin Nov 3 2013, 12:18 AM
http://youtu.be/r1LgOD4dM9U I used a non-Khajiit voice set for her because there isn't any dialog for a female Khajiit to become a follower. And I prefer the sound of this one over the rasp.
I created a new race from scratch for Persephone. It was a lot of work. Especially creating a new headpart for every eye color, every hair style, every eyebrow, etc...
Yeah, that was kind of surprising. I was able to use most of the Khajiit stuff on Aravi, though there was a few things that I had to make separately. This race isn't playable either so I only did the one hair, the one scar, the one set of earrings.
I went with the caravans. It was really easy to make her another caravan follower. Meeting her in Castle Dawnguard is a neat idea, and I may do that later.
Posted by: Acadian Nov 3 2013, 12:29 AM
KC, congrats! She's spectacular and I love her voice - it seems to quite suit her and Aravi did not learn her speech from Khajiit anyway. 
Posted by: SubRosa Nov 3 2013, 12:57 AM
I have to admit it sounds strange to hear that voice coming out of a Khajiit. But it one of the better ones in the game. It is certainly better than the default Nord Female voice! 
You might also make Aravi a merchant, and have her sell anti-vampire things. Stuff like Stendarr's Aura and Sunfire spellbooks, Bane of the Undead Scrolls, cure disease potions, that sort of thing.
Posted by: mALX Nov 3 2013, 01:48 AM
http://youtu.be/r1LgOD4dM9U I used a non-Khajiit voice set for her because there isn't any dialog for a female Khajiit to become a follower. And I prefer the sound of this one over the rasp.
Is that Serana's voice?
Posted by: Grits Nov 3 2013, 01:54 PM
Oh my gosh, I adore her! The outfit you chose shows off her unique coloring so well, and I love her sweet voice. It was awesome to see her at ease moving around the campfire with the other Khajiit.
Thanks for showing her equipment, you know I was dying to see! Have you given her some spells? 
Yay, this is exciting!
Posted by: King Coin Nov 3 2013, 05:13 PM
KC, congrats! She's spectacular and I love her voice - it seems to quite suit her and Aravi did not learn her speech from Khajiit anyway.
Thanks!
That is my favorite of the available voices.You might also make Aravi a merchant, and have her sell anti-vampire things. Stuff like Stendarr's Aura and Sunfire spellbooks, Bane of the Undead Scrolls, cure disease potions, that sort of thing.
That's an interesting idea. I might consider that later. Right now I'm testing her combat AI and adjusting it. Currently she's using the assassin AI package, because that's one of the few that dual wields. I want to see how often she uses her bow.
Is that Serana's voice?
Nope, that's one of the standard voices.
Oh my gosh, I adore her! The outfit you chose shows off her unique coloring so well, and I love her sweet voice. It was awesome to see her at ease moving around the campfire with the other Khajiit.
Thanks for showing her equipment, you know I was dying to see! Have you given her some spells?
Yay, this is exciting!
The bad thing about that outfit is that she looks so cold when they are north!
As for spells, I've given her a TON of perks and the Lord stone ability. I'm going to give her a couple of healing spells and see what she does with them. I'm also going to see what she does if I give her the fire breath words.
Right now she uses the standard follower quest. Something I'd like to do is pull her out of that one and make a different controlling quest for her, so that she doesn't use the standard follower slot. Something else I could do is make it detect when the player levels up and make it add a perk to Aravi instead of loading her up with perks like I have.
I had to deal with the infamous 'white face' bug with Aravi. That ended up being a simple fix. After creating your character in the CK, click on them in the Object Window and press ctrl+F4 and that exports their face tints. The files will appear at: Skyrim\Data\textures\actors\character\FacegenData\Facetint\YourModName. Just leave them there, and in game your character's face will be correctly colored.
EDIT: There are meshes generated as well, you need them too. They will have the same path as the face tint textures, just in the meshes folder instead.
Posted by: King Coin Nov 8 2013, 05:33 AM
If anyone would like Aravi in their game, here's a https://www.dropbox.com/s/vrzn0tr1bhcuxw4/Aravi.zip.
She will be following the Khajiit caravan that travels between Dawnstar and Riften. Right now she has the functionality of all the standard followers. I will add more complex behavior later.
The only issue I know about is headgear does not appear correctly on her, it clips through her face. Don't give her a helmet and everything should be fine. I think I know what I need to do thanks to ghastly, but I do not have time to mess with it right now.
Posted by: Grits Nov 21 2013, 12:03 AM
I absolutely LOVE having Aravi in Jerric’s Skyrim. Her voice is perfect for her, and she is such a speedy little badass! So far only Valdi has found her from my crew. Valdi and Erik are helping her (LOL) retrieve Kharjo’s Moon Amulet. Then I’m not sure what they’ll do, but I’m sure Kharjo will come along for it too.
The story of why Jerric has not found Aravi yet will soon be posted in the Today thread. It’s a typical Jerric situation!
KC, thank you so much for offering Aravi as a companion! She is every bit as lovely and awesome as she is in your videos. Yay!!
Posted by: King Coin Nov 21 2013, 04:45 AM
Glad you are enjoying her! I noticed her equipping shields. Just another thing to do eventually!
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