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> Renee's Modding Thread
Renee
post May 13 2018, 07:53 PM
Post #21


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From: Ellicott City, Maryland



Faction-changing Armor and Clothing

Game: Fallout 3 or Oblivion

Good evening. This one is going to focus on making faction changes, which are caused by simply putting on some clothes or armor. This will work best when changing outfits just before going from one cell to another, and is much more RP-friendly than using console commands. wink.gif

I got this to work in Fallout 3 last summer, in Janet Telia's game. I was able to get her into a faction which was compatible with the RaiderFaction by having her put on some specialized raider armor, waiting an hour, and then entering a cell full of raiders. Once inside that cell, these enemies were now her friends. The entire faction of raiders remained friendly to her from that point on, all across the Wasteland, as long as she was wearing her special armor.

This works also in Oblivion, but a few things are done different in this earlier game.


----------------------------

1).Open up the GECK, bla bla... First thing we're going to do is to make a customized faction.

1a). MAIN toolbar > Characters > Faction
Go ahead and make a custom faction by right-clicking > New into the Editor ID window. I called Janet's special faction aaaRaiderFaction, though you can call yours whatever you'd like.


NOTE: If modding Fallout 3 DO NOT just use one of Bethesda's factions (such as RaiderFaction). It is better to make a custom faction, rather than adding the PC to one of the game's premade factions. Before I figured this out, I was using the Bethesda raider faction. When Janet put on her raider-faction armor, she was accepted by raiders just fine. Problem was, she could not 'break' out of this faction just by removing her armor. Even if she shot somebody, they would continue to be her friend. dry.gif Maybe this is a 'friendly fire' sort of function, so that if one raider shoots another, he/she won't just turn around and begin fighting this other raider, when they should be coming after us.

With a custom faction, the results worked just as I wanted them to. smile.gif There were some limits though, and these limits will be discussed toward the bottom-third of this post.

NOTE:: IF making a faction-changing apparel item for Oblivion don't use a custom faction. Instead use one of the game's ordinary factions such as BanditFaction. Maybe there's a way to make custom factions work but the game seems more hardcoded to only accept the vanilla factions.


1b). Give this faction a Name. You can toggle Evil on if you want to, which will temporarily influence how Karma works.

1c). Right-click > New into the Interfaction Relations window, and use the Opposing/Affiliated scroll-bar to find the faction you want to modify toward your character's custom faction.

1d). Let's say RaiderFaction got chosen during step 1c. For best results, make the Disposition Modifier 100, with Group Combat Reactions toggled to Ally.

Experiments can be tried with numbers lower than 100, and 'Friend' or 'Neutral' can also be chosen instead of Ally, if you want to make this faction-change happen with more of a question mark.


1e). Click OK (closing the Factions panel) and SAVE.


2a). OBJECT window
Go into Items. Edit an outfit (a piece of clothing or armor), and give it a unique ID. Make sure this item hasn't got a script attached. If it does, set this to NONE. Click OK. When asked if we want to save this under a new ID? Click Yes.

2b). The Script Type scroll-bar can stay as Object. Here is what to write.


scriptname aaaFactionChangingArmorScript

Begin OnEquip Player

End

Begin OnUnequip Player

End


Close/save that, click OK (closing the Armor panel). Reopen the new armor, find the script just wrote in the Script scroll-bar. Click OK again, SAVE, and reopen again. Here is the rest of the script.

------------------------

scriptname aaaFactionChangingArmorScript

Begin OnEquip Player
Player.SetFactionRank aaaFaction 1

End

Begin OnUnequip Player
Player.SetFactionRank aaaFaction -1

End


-------------------------------------

Where it says "aaaFaction", substitute this term with the name of your actual custom faction. So for me, I'm typing aaaRaiderFaction where it says aaaFaction.

And here's one final trick which is optional. It it possible to put messages into the game as well. This is for our information only, and is a way to make sure the mod's working. Some may find it immersion-breaking.

** Adding a message into Oblivion is easy. Simply type Message "Type message content here", X into either of the script's Begin and End blocks. X = the number of seconds the message will stay onscreen for. So if I type

Begin OnEquip Player
Player.SetFactionRank aaaFaction 1

Message "I am now a bandit", 10

End


This will cause a message to flash onscreen for 10 seconds which says "I am now a bandit". For Fallout 3 or NV the process requires more steps.




Object window > Miscellaneous > Message
3a). Right-click > New into the window.

3b). For ID, I am calling it aaaRaiderArmorEquipMessage. Copy that name and paste it on a Notepad file.

Give the message a name. Use the Icon scroll-bar to add an image to the message (although sometimes, the icon doesn't work in-game).

3c). Turn Message Box off, and change the Display Time slot from 2 to whatever. I find that 2 seconds aren't long enough sometimes for the message to sink in. smile.gif

3d). Message can be whatever is desired. In my game it says "Yo, checkit! I am now part of the Raider Faction, beeyatch!"

Ahem. Click OK.

3e). Return to the armor script, and add ShowMessage aaaMessage somewhere between the OnEquip and End functions, with 'aaaMessage' being the name of the message created during step 3b. A second message can be added which denotes our character moving out of the faction.

So in my game, in total, it says


scriptname aaaFactionChangingArmorScript

Begin OnEquip Player

Player.SetFactionRank aaaFaction 1

ShowMessage aaaRaiderArmorEquipMessage

End

Begin OnUnequip Player

Player.SetFactionRank aaaFaction -1

ShowMessage aaaRaiderArmorUnEquipMessage

End



There it is. 😶 This script will make sure the player-character gets added and removed from whatever faction desired, in a never-ending loop. However, there are limitations to this.

-- Make sure your character changes clothes in a cell which is separate from any enemies. Once this is done it's best to wait an hour (press the wait button), and then enter the cell which is being influenced. Over time I've gotten lazy here and there, forgotten to wait for instance, and everything might still work fine. But to make this work 100% it's best to follow that sequence. The faction-changing effect works best this way. Plus, it's more realistic that a bunch of enemies won't change their hostile minds, simply because they witness our toon changing into some outfit!

Edit 2022: I have recently discovered that we don't always need to be in a separate cell for this to work, however it helps if NPCs (if they are supposed to be hostile) don't see our character at the time of the armor/clothing change.

--I tried entering the raider-infested grocery store (the store next to Gold Ribbon Grocery, with all those raiders inside), for instance. Janet entered this store wearing ordinary clothes. The raiders inside were hostile. Then, I had her leave the building, changing into her special Faction Armor. Back inside, the raiders were now friendly. Back outside, change of clothes again, now they're hostile again.

However, after doing this several times, they eventually defaulted to friendly no matter what she was wearing.

...Of course, nobody would do any of this in the game. It's silly to change back and forth like this as we're actually playing. We only need to change into the outfit once before we enter their territory, and maybe change back out of it once, if we're going back into ordinary civilization again. I'm just highlighting that there are some limits, here. These limits won't be found though, until the gamer is doing some heavy experimentation. ph34r.gif


--To break her friends-only status, I tried having her attack a raider. He ignored her attack at first, but eventually fought back. Once this moment was crossed, this guy was now NOT her friend anymore, and attacked every time, even if she ran outside and changed clothes from and to the Faction armor. Thing is, only that one raider attacked her. The others were still friendly to Janet.

Bottom line though: when just playing the game normally, change the character's outfit once, wait an hour, and then enter a cell with enemies in it, everything should work. Later, if the outfit gets removed, maybe your character's going back to Megaton or Rivet City (wearing outlaw armor wouldn't be appropriate) all of that should work too.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 14 2024, 04:45 PM


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Renee
post May 29 2018, 01:25 AM
Post #22


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Making an NPC Follower Game: Fallout 3

Note: this method will work for Oblivion too, however, I also had some unsolvable problems with my OB followers. So for now, this only pertains to FO3. Oblivion has CM Partners, as well as Companion Share & Recruit. Both of these mods are so well done, it's almost pointless to try and top them.

Personally though, I've been dissatisfied with the follower mods I've seen in Fallout so far. Maybe that's why I decided to learn how to make my own.

-------------------------------------

1). Start up the Fallout 3 GECK, yadd yadda....

2). OBJECT window > Actors > NPC
Make a new NPC. Place him or her into the world somewhere. Do the usual: ID, Name, Race, and don't forget to give him or her a Voice Type. Once he or she is in the world, give him/her a Reference ID. Persistent Reference toggled on. I am calling this ID aaaFollowerRef for this lesson.

If the follower is going to be combat-oriented, choose an appropriate Class, like "SoldierScout" or "BrotherhoodKnight." Not Doctor, or Drunk.


3). Stats tab:
Change the various settings to make this NPC as you'd like, so they'll be strong, or agile, or proficient with a particular type of weapon, etc. Note that Class tends to change those Skill values around, if Auto Calc Stats is chosen.

4). Factions tab:
Putting the NPC into a particular Faction is good, but the PlayerFaction is NOT important at all. Do not put them in Player Faction, I have found it can actually cause problems.

AI Data tab
This can vary a lot of course, depending what kind of NPC follower you're going to make. A combat-oriented character (if we want him / her to live) should have Aggression set to Aggressive, Average for Confidence, and Helps Friends and Allies for Assistance. We don't want them too aggressive or confident; this can cause them to do stupid things.

Even with the settings I just suggested, they can still do stupid things. wacko.gif But those are the settings I prefer. If you'd like to know more about setting up an NPC, just follow the GECK's official page.


5). OBJECT window > Actor Data > Quest
Right-click > New into the Editor ID window. Quest Name is not important, except for your own reference. None of this will appear in-game, except NPC dialog.

Make sure Start Game Enabled is on, and Priority can be 55. Script Processing Delay can be on.


6). We're going to write a script now.... under the main script area, so make sure its type is Quest. Note that this script is ultra-short.
===========

sciptname aaaFollowerScript

short Status

; 0 = Sandbox, 1 = Follow, 2 = Wait


============

Note: The semi-colon to the left of 0 = Sandbox is there to make sure the game's engine won't read the words which come after the semi-colon. The game will not actually read anything after a semi-colon (on that particular line of text, anyway), so you can type whatever you'd like after one, for your own reference.

Save the script and close it. Click OK (closing the Quest window), save, reopen the Quest window, and find your script in the scroll-bar. Click OK again.

Now, the weird thing about followers or companions in Fallout 3 is: there are two methods which will work. Method 1 begins below. Method 1 uses AI Packages which are attached directly to the NPC's AI Packages tab, however, I have found that sometimes this method does not work 100%. One follower might follow us. Tell them to Wait, and they still follow us, for instance. So... follow steps 7a through 9c below for Method 1. Method 1 is the 'official' method taught in a few You Tube videos, okay?

If stuff is not working properly (Follow, Wait, and Sandbox, mostly) go to Method 2, which is at the bottom of this post.

7a). Go back into the NPC's AI Packages tab, right-click > New into the AI Package List window, and make a Sandbox AI, by changing the Package Type scroll-bar to Sandbox. Give the package an ID name too. I am calling it aaaFollowerSandbox for this lesson.

7b). Click on the the Wander Location button, and change it from Near Editor Location to Near Current Location. Click OK. Make Radius = 1000, or whatever number you choose. Numbers lower than 50 will cause them to wander in almost in a circle. Anything over 500 will give the follower some breadth, causing him or her to move around an entire room or two.

Basically, this Sandbox package will be used whenever we leave the follower in a situation that isn't dangerous. For RP purposes, they should be able to move around and do stuff in their time off, since they're "at ease".

7c). We can toggle as many Allowed Behaviors as we'd like. In the Flags tab, we can also leave Enable Fallout Behavior toggled on, for somebody who's got some dynamic off-time going. Or we can toggle this off, and then click whatever behaviors we'd like the follower to allow.


8a). Now make a Follow AI. Follow all the steps in 7a, except find Follow in the scroll-bar this time. I am calling it aaaFollowerFollow

8b). In the Follow Target area, choose "Specific Reference," and choose Player in the Ref scroll-bar. "Cell" is not important.

8c). "Follow Distance" can be set at 300 for close-quarter action, or much further away if we want a tail rather than a shadow.

8d). Uncheck the "EndLocation" toggle.

8e). Flags tab
We can leave Enable Fallout Behavior on (or turn this off, but choose a few individual flags, like "Reaction to Player Actions"). But make sure to also check the "Continue during Combat" toggle on. "Allow Swimming" and "Allow Falls" can also be checked on.

On the other hand, "Allow Swimming" might be bad in some cases. It really sucks seeing your follower go rushing underwater just to defeat a mirelurk. rolleyes.gif Next thing you know, your stupid follower is drowning.


Now, to make a Wait AI. "Wait here" is going to be used to make an NPC just stand in one place. This is obviously best to use once we're out in the field again. The follower won't go wandering off, and is less likely to attract danger because of this. I am naming this final AI Package aaaFollowerWait.

9a). Right-click > New into the Editor ID window again. Choose "Guard" for the Package Type.

9b). Under "Reference to Guard" leave the 'Linked Ref' toggle on. "Remain Near Guard Location" can also be on. Press the rectangular button (it should say Near Editor Location by default) and change this to Near Current Location. Guard Location Radius can be 0, for best results.

9c). Flags tab
Most of these should be off, unless we've got ourselves a chatty, undisciplined follower who doesn't stand down very well. sad.gif For best results, of course, just turn all the Fallout Behavior stuff off.


12). QUEST window > Topics tab.

We're going to make a total of four GREETINGS, and five dialog Topics. Go ahead and right-click > New a GREETING topic, as well as these five dialog topics: one to do with Following, Waiting, Trading, getting Fired, and a "Goodbye" topic.

12a). The first GREETING should literally be a 'first time' greeting, which will be what the follower says to our character when first met. "Hey, who are you?" or whatever. That's a bad example, but you can get more creative here. Make sure "Say Once" is toggled on. The only Condition will be a GetIsID, for that particular NPC.

Now, in the Add Topic window, we can link from this first GREETING to only the Follow topic.

>>> 12b). The second GREETING assumes we went ahead and got this NPC to start following us. Conditions go....

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status == 1.00


... since this GREETING will be what the follower says when actively following. Dialog for this greeting can be "What's up? Why have we stopped?" or whatever.

In the Add Topics box, right-click > New, and then link this GREETING to the Wait, Trade, You're Fired!, and Goodbye topics. When the NPC is already following us, we'll be able to tell him or her to "Wait here," "Can we trade some things?" and so on.

>>> 12c). The third GREETING is going to be used when the guy has been waiting around in Guard mode (not moving, in other words). "Hey I'm bored. When are we gonna get going again?"... Copy All Conditions from the second GREETING, and paste them into the third. But we're going to change the final number to match what's in the Main Script.

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status == 2.00


In the Add Topics box, add all the topics except the Wait one, since the NPC is already waiting during this greeting (duh).

>>> 12d). The fourth and final GREETING will be used once the NPC has joined us (or we've fired him or her, or he/she hasn't been rehired yet), yet still is in Sandbox mode. So the NPC will say "Want me to follow?" for this GREETING, or whatever.

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable: 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status == 0.00
, since this GREETING will be what the follower says when he or she is still sandboxing.

In the Add Topics box, only add the Follow and Goodbye topics. This way, we have the option to have the NPC follow us (breaking Sandbox mode) or simply stay there.



13a). For the NPC following topic. Give the NPC some stuff to say under Response Text ("YES, time to kick some Wasteland ass!") and add some words into the Prompt slot to make some text for us to click on, telling the NPC that we'd like him or her to start following us. "Hey, I could use your help," is fine.

Paste the same Conditions from the GREETING, but this time it will be ...

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable: 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status != 1.00


Note: != means "does not equal one."

13b). In the Result Script (End) box it should say these three things:

Set aaaFollowerQuest.Status to 1
aaaNPCFollwerRef.EVP
SetPlayerTeammate 1


Substitute "aaaNPCFollowerRef" with the actual Reference ID of your follower.

> EVP stands for EValuate Package. It is what the GECK uses to translate stuff, somehow.


*Note that final script: SetPlayerTeammate. This will make sure the follower tends to mirror the pc's behavior. So the follower will sneak if we do. He/she will draw their weapon when we do, and also use up any ammo we give him or her. Ammo which is a default part of their inventory though (from the GECK) will not decrease.


13c). In the Add Topics box, add the Wait, Trade, and Fire topics, so that even after we ask them to follow, we can change our mind, or still trade with them.


14a). Now, the Wait topic. Follow all the steps from the Follow topic, but make sure "Goodbye" is toggled on, if you want a quick exit.

14b). Paste all the same Conditions from before, but this time the quest variable will be....

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status == 1.00


14c). Result Script (End) should be

Set aaaFollowerQuest.Status to 2
aaaNPCFollowerRef.EVP



15). Next is the Dismiss (or Fire) topic. Give this an appropriate Prompt ("Time for us to part ways, pard'ner...") and NPC Response Text ("WHAT? I thought we were buds! You suck!"). "Goodbye" should be checked on.

GetIsID aaaNPCFollower == 1 AND
GetQuestVariable: 'aaaFollowerQuest', Status != 0


The Result Script (End) should say

Set aaaFollowerQuest.Status to 0
aaaNPCFollowerRef.EVP
SetPlayerTeamMate 0


Note that last one, the teammate one. This will cancel any behaviors the NPC was up to before we fired him or her. So if this NPC was sneaking especially, they will go away while not sneaking. sad.gif


16a). Now, Trading topic. Do all the stuff with dialog and Prompts. Set the condition window like this to make sure he only trades while following.

GetIsID aaaFollowerName == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable aaaFollowerQuest.Status == 1.00


We can also set it so that he'll trade only while waiting, by changing that 1 to 2. And there's actually also a third option, as seen below...

GetQuestVariable aaaFollowerQuest Status != 0

I actually like this one the best. It allows the NPC to trade while they're following or waiting. Only when sandboxing will we not be able to trade stuff.

16b). We also have a choice of 'hearing' the NPC speak either while his/her inventory is opening, or after it opens. If we put the following in the Result Script (Begin) window, it will make them speak while we are looking at their stuff, the way some merchants speak while we're starting to browse their menus.

OpenTeamMateContainer 1

If we put this into the End box, they will say what they have to say, and then show us their inventory.

The 'Trade" topic does not need anything in the Add Topics box, so leave this box blank.


17). Finally we need a way to get out of conversations. which is the Goodbye topic. We can just make some dialog and Prompt, and choose the Goodbye toggle. We can use the same GetIsId, but we finally won't need a GetQuestVariable, so that we can say Goodbye to this NPC whether or not he /she is following.


18). Now... Priorities. In the upper right hand corner of the Topic panel is a small slot for Priority. Give this Goodbye topic a lower Priority than the others (all of which will be 50 except for GREETING, which is 55). We can give the Goodbye topic 49. What this does is it causes the NPC's topics to appear from top to bottom according to how high each Priority is. "Goodbye" will always appear toward the bottom.

That should be all. smile.gif Note that during actual gameplay, NPC followers sometimes wander off and do their own thing, when they're supposed to be following us. This happens especially when going from one cell to another: indoor to outdoor is most common. This can get frustrating! But even though there are some long pauses when it seems the NPC is nowhere around, they eventually do start following.


19A). Oops, one more thing. We can add a script to the NPC follower which makes them not only heal up, but which will also restore several of their stats, especially once combat is over. Here it is.

--------------------------

scriptname aaaNPCFollowerScript

Begin OnCombatEnd

If (GetPlayerTeammate == 1)

ResetHealth
restoreav PerceptionCondition 100
restoreav EnduranceCondition 100
restoreav LeftAttackConditino 100
restoreav RightAttackCondition 100
restoreav LeftMobilityCondition 100
restoreav RightMobilityCondition 100

EndIf
End

Begin OnDeath
Set aaaFollowerQuest.Status to 0
SetPlayerTeammate 0

EndIf
End


---------------------------------

This script is especially helpful, since followers don't seem to use Stimpaks, even if we add these to their inventories. mad.gif Grrr.....

The death script at the bottom is basically a "clean up" function, which turns the entire follower quest off for that particular NPC, once he or she had died. It cancels any running background scripts to keep the game not sending or collecting any information to this dead NPC.


METHOD 2.

This portion of the tutorial will hopefully work 100%, assuming the follower(s) don't always do what they're told. Don't worry, this is easy.

20a). Remove the AI Packages (Sandbox, Follow, and Wait) from all NPC followers involved.

20b). Open up the follower quest > Topics section. Start with the topic which causes them to Sandbox. In the Result Script (End) box, remove the aaaFollowerRef.EVP part. Leave the "Set aaaFollowerQuest.Status to 0" and "SetPlayerTeammate" parts alone.

20c). Now type aaaFollowerRef.AddScriptPackage aaaFollowerSandbox and put this below the aaaFollowerQuest.Sandbox line of code.

20d). Do the same for the Follow and Wait parts of the quest.

Voila.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 14 2024, 04:49 PM


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Renee
post Jun 10 2018, 11:53 PM
Post #23


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Joined: 19-March 13
From: Ellicott City, Maryland



Timer Scripts. Game: TES IV: Oblivion or Fallout 3

Today's post is going to be another shortie, and shall deal specifically with timers. I use timers a lot, for a bunch of different ideas, so it'll be good to have a timer standalone post.

There are a couple different types of timers Bethesda uses; daily and hourly versions. I've only figured out the daily ones. Timers can be used in all sorts of ways for scripting, for a variety of different functions. In this case, the timer script below will cause a quest stage to advance.



1). Open up the Oblivion Construction Set, or Fallout 3 GECK. File > Data.

2). Find the esp you've been working with and activate it, bla bla bla..

...Let's say a quest is already being written, and there are two quest stages. For now, I'll call them Stage X and Stage Y. Between these two stages is going to be a timer script, which triggers after Stage X begins. And Stage X begins due to some sort of event. This event can be any number of things: Maybe an NPC finishes pontificating a speech. Maybe a door gets unlocked. Maybe an enemy gets pwned. Maybe a certain calendar day gets passed. Whatever it is, the event causes Stage X to occur. Once X is happening, now the timer begins its job. The timer counts down a day, or a certain number of days. Once the timer's job is done, the quest advances from Stage X to Stage Y.

Hope that made sense. rolleyes.gif Basically the process goes: event occurs, quest bumps to Stage X, timer begins, a day (or more) passes, timer ends, quest bumps to Stage Y.

That is just one example of how a timer script can be used. And here is how to set it all up.


3). Go into your quest's Quest Data tab. Open up its main script.

And here is the script necessary to make the timer begin...

-------------------

scriptname aaaQuestnameScript

short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (GetStage aaaQuestname == X)
If (Timer == 0)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
SetTimer to 1

EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >=1)
SetStage aaaQuestname Y
Set Timer to 0

EndIf
EndIf

End


------------------

Notice the "StartDay) >=1" part. The number 1 means at least one day must pass before the quest stage advances from X to Y. The number 1 can be changed to whatever you'd like though: 3... 10 .... 16 whatever you'd like. I'm sure there is some sort of limit here. Not sure what this could be though. I've gone as high as 30.

Let's say Stage X is actually Stage 30, and Stage Y is actually Stage 40. Altogether, this means an event happens which sets Stage 30 (whether an NPC gives us information, a door is opened, the death of an NPC occurs, whatever). Since the quest is at 30, this triggers the timer to begin. After a day (or more) has passed, the timer automatically moves the quest's stage to 40.

During playtesting, the timer might sometimes require more than an actual day before it does its job. We've all been there during certain Bethesda quests, right? laugh.gif We wait and wait for ... whatever the quest is supposed to do next. An example is during Oblivion's Main Quest, when Martin needs time to translate the Mysterium Xarxes. This takes several days, if I remember correctly, during which some gamers can become impatient.

I think it all depends on what hour the timer began. In-game days begin at midnight, just like they do on Earth. I haven't figured out what this means in-game though, pertaining to timer scripts. Does the timer begin counting at the very hour the event occurs? (9 pm, for instance?) or does it start at midnight, since that's the beginning of the next day? .... I haven't figured that out, yet.

To be safe, if you want 10 days to go by, and the quest must get something done within 10 days, you can use the number 9 instead of 10, in the StartDay line. Chances are, 10 days are what will pass.


4). Save the script and close it.

And that is all. As I said, timers can be used to do all sorts of things, not just triggering quest stages. The first time I used a timer, I managed to make a quest advance, but the timer also made two NPCs teleport from two outside cells, into Summitmist Manor. These two NPCs met, had a conversation full of threats and insults, and then began attacking one another.



==============================================================

And here's a timer I wrote in which time is counted in seconds, rather than days. This timer can repeat itself, too. The idea: My skooma dealer, if he makes a sale, won't immediately be able to just make another sale right away, to the same NPC or to any other NPC. He must wait 30 seconds. The idea being: we can't just spam sales to the same NPC (asking them over and over), the temptation will be there to move on to another NPC.

Making a sale (via dialog with skooma den addicts and bandits) causes the DoOnce variable to go from 0 to 1

1). Start the script like so...

scriptname TimerScript

short DoOnce
short Timer

Begin GameMode

End


2). Change Script Type from Object to Quest and save.

Close the script, press OK, closing the quest, reopen the quest and find the script in the scroll-bar. Click OK again, and reopen.

3). Here is the rest of the script.


scriptname TimerScript

short DoOnce
float Timer

Begin GameMode

If (DoOnce == 1) && (Timer < 30)
Set Timer to Timer + GetSecondsPassed

EndIf

If (DoOnce == 1) && (Timer >= 30)
Set DoOnce to 0
SetTimer to 0

Message "I should try for another sale."

EndIf

End


This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 24 2023, 04:47 AM


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post Jun 24 2018, 03:37 AM
Post #24


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Making a house for sale or rent. Game: TES IV: Oblivion

(This also works for Fallout 3, but there are enough differences between each game that Fallout will get its own post).

This one is going to explain how to make a house (or flat, or whatever sort of dwelling you'd like) into something we can not only buy, but also rent. And when we rent this space, we'll be able to make it rentable for an entire month.... or however long you'd like.

But why rent, when we can just buy?


Glad you asked. It's because in many cases (if we're keeping things somewhat realistic, as per the vanilla game's policy on housing prices), our character cannot afford the house he or she may want to buy. Not until later on, when lots of money has been accrued. Renting is cheaper, therefore we can get a place earlier. I also like the idea of having something to always spend money on. And it's just fun making this stuff up, and seeing it all work in-game.

We can create a new place to live, or we can use one which is already in the game, it doesn't matter. Here is my personal story on how the idea came about.




1a). CELL + RENDER windows
First thing to do is find the place's interior in the cell window, and then click on its Door Marker so now we're outside. Double left-click on its door. Give this door a Reference ID. I'm going to give this door a Ref ID called aaaFrontDoorRef.

1b). Click on the Lock tab too, and lock that door if it's not already locked. Or, lock that door with a tougher lock than it has. Click OK, closing the door's Reference panel.

1c). OBJECT window > Items > Key. Edit a key, save it as a New Form. If the door already has a key, this key can be used and a key won't need to be created.

1d). Reopen the door's Reference panel > Lock tab. Use the door's Key scroll-bar to find the key you just made. Again, if it already has a key, just keep using that one. Click OK.


2a). OBJECT window
Edit a named NPC. I wanted this NPC to also buy & sell stuff, so for convenience, I edited Velus Hosidius, the guy who runs the Merchants' Inn in the I.C. Market District. Since Velus is already a merchant, this will make setting him up easier. I edited his ID to aaaHouseAgent and changed his Name to Leyawiin House Agent.

Click OK, closing the NPC's panel.

2b). Place the NPC housing agent out in the world and give him or her a Reference ID. This NPC is going to be our agent who we rent the house from, or buy it from. So depending where we put him, we should alter his Faction, his AI, his Inventory, etc.

2c). Class can stay as MerchPublican, unless there's some specific reason to change it.

2d). Whoever you chose to edit, make sure to get rid of all his or her AI. If you want the agent to buy & sell stuff, you can keep any AI that has the "Offers Services" toggle on, just make sure to change the AI package's Cell Location to where the NPC has been placed. You can also add your own AI (making the agent travel or sleep or whatever) though that is optional.

2e). Get rid of any script too, by scrolling the scroll-bar up until it says NONE.

2f). Click OK and use the main tool bar to SAVE.

2g). Now, open up your NPC house agent's panel again. Start a new script. The script's Script Type will stay as Object, and the script itself is incredibly simple, compared to what Velos had.

-------------------------

scriptname aaaHouseAgentScript

short Rent


-----------------------------

2h). Close and save that script. Click OK (closing the house agent's panel) and reopen it. Find the house agent's script. Click OK again. bluewizardsmile.gif And that's all for his script.

It's a good idea to leave the agent on-screen, in the Render window. Later on when conditions are being set up (as the quest is being made), the agent can be clicked upon to quickly set up some stuff that'll be gotten to in a few more steps.


3). QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Press the Q button on the main toolbar, and start a new quest. All the typical things that usually go into the Quest Data page will also be in this one. Start Game Enabled toggled on, GetIsPlayableRace == 1.00 under Quest Conditions, etc. The only difference is we don't have to set Priority very high. Matter of fact, it can be as low as 10, especially since the NPC we're dealing with won't be associated with any other quests.

4). Quest Stages tab:
A minimum of three quest stages go in the Index window. I am choosing 0, 5, and 100.

You can add more stages than this if you'd like to build some sort of story, and make this into an actual quest. But the basic build only requires three stages.


5a). Topics tab
Go ahead and give your NPC a GREETING. He / she will explain that there is a house for rental or purchase in his / her dialog. "How fares thee? My name is X, and I am the official housing agent here in X. Have you come to rent or buy a home today?"

There are three Conditions:

GetIsID aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName < 5.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaHouseAgentRef', Rent == 0


For the GetScriptVariable, when it asks for a reference, just click the "Select Reference in Render Window" button, and then double left-click on the agent. This'll set things up nice and quick.

.... that final Condition (the GetScriptVariable) is one I'd never used before, at the time that I made this mod. What this does is makes sure the agent ONLY says this greeting if we have not rented the place yet. Of course, this is the first time we're meeting the agent, so of course it hasn't been rented yet. But that line of code will show up several times later on, and it's got an ability to make sure certain dialog happens when the agent is spoken to, or does not happen.

Buying the place won't require this variable, because if we can afford to buy it, the entire quest simply ends. But if we rent it, the game needs to know whether or not we've already rented the place, so that the agent's dialog fits what is happening. This variable will also ensure that the game won't keep taking our money, if we accidentally try to rent after the place has already been rented. .

When we speak to this agent for the first time, this will bump the quest into a "middle" stage, which I'm calling Stage 5. This stage does not actually need a Log Entry (it's like if we rent a room from Velus, or any innkeeper; there is no need for a quest stage to appear). But it's important to make this quest move forward via SetStage. This way, we can add dialog which includes the moment that agent is first met, and also after we meet him or her. Dialog will be different in each situation, which adds some realism.

5b). So, in the Result Script add Player.SetStage aaaQuestName 5

Substitute your quest's name where it says "aaaQuestName."


6). Choices box: Add two dialog choices here: one which will lead to renting the space, another which will lead to buying it. aaaRent and aaaBuy.


7a). First, let's discuss renting. In the Editor ID, find the two Choices just added, and add them into this window as well. Now let's choose the Topic which will allow rental dialog.

7b). "How much to rent the place?" we can put under Topic Text. And give the agent a response. "It's your lucky day! The market has been down, and so we're asking for 300 gold per month," or whatever you think is appropriate.

7c). In the Conditions window, we can just copy/paste everything from the GREETING, including the Script Variable. The only difference will be the GetStage Condition, which will reflect that middle stage the quest has bumped to.

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaHouseAgentRef', Rent == 0


7d). Now, add two more choices in the Choices box: one which is a "Yes" response (aaaRentYes), and one which is a "No" response (aaaRentNo).

7e). Add these into the Editor ID window, and change the Topic Text for each into plain English. "Yes, I'd like to rent it", and "No, I changed my mind."


First, the aaaRentYes topic: Once we're back in-game, and at the moment when we wish to rent, there has to be some way for the game to know if the character has enough money. If the character can afford to rent it, there'll be a response for this. We'll also need to make a response which the agent will say if we can't afford to rent it. Go ahead and make both of these responses: "Very well, your house has been rented. You'll find its door unlocked for the next 30 days," or "Hmm, seems you haven't enough gold at this time."

8a). Let's say the agent is asking 300 gold a month, and our character can afford this. Here are what will go in the Conditions box for that response...

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaHouseAgentRef', Rent == 0.00 AND
GetGold NONE >= 300.00


8b). Toggle "Run on Target" ON for that final condition (the GetGold one). The character needs to have 300 gold or more, to make this response happen, and the game engine needs to be able to look into the character's inventory at this moment. If Run on Target is not toggled on, the game won't be able to "see" how much gold the character has.

8c). In the Result Script box, add the following.

aaaFrontDoorRef.unlock
Player.RemoveItem Gold001 300
Set aaaHouseAgentRef.Rent to 1
SetCellOwnership Cell


> Substitute 'aaaFrontDoorRef' with the Reference ID you gave the door of your rentable space.

> Substitute 'Cell' with whatever cell your character is going to be living in. This assumes (of course) the Player does not already own this cell. So in my game, that final script is SetCellOwnership LeyawiinCingorsHouse


Overall ... when the agent is spoken to, and we tell him or her we'd like to rent the place, what'll happen is the game will automatically unlock the place's door IF our character has 300 gold, or more. The game changes the place's Rent variable from 0 to 1, which causes the agent's dialog to follow a different path if we try to speak to him / her again. And finally, the game makes sure the cell now belongs to the player-character.


9). Now ... if your character can't afford the 300 gold, here are the Conditions for this...

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetGold NONE < 300


... Again, make sure GetGold has Run on Target toggled ON. "Goodbye" can also be toggled on, making the NPC ForceBye us, because he or she's not happy that we're wasting their time.


10a). Make a second GREETING, this one saying "You're back. And the place is still available. Would you like to rent or buy it?" ... The NPC will say this Greeting after the place has been rented, but 30 days have passed, therefore the rental has expired.

10b). Again, include the same topic Choices (for renting or buying) which were included during the first GREETING: aaaRent and aaaBuy. These choices will lead in the exact same directions as they did after the first GREETING, which ensures that this quest is repeatable, giving us maximum choice all along.

Conditions look like this....

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaHouseAgentRef', Rent == 0.00


10c). Now, make a third GREETING. This one will show up after the place has been rented, but the rental has not expired yet: "You are back. How is your lovely home? You have already rented it, are you thinking of buying today?"

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaHouseAgentRef', Rent == 1.00


We have not written any "buy" dialog yet, but we'll do that in a moment. For now, just click OK (closing the quest window) and save. And reopen the Quest window.


11a). QUEST DATA tab
It's that time! Time to write a script, and it's going to be a timer script, just like in the post above this one. This timer script will allow the game to rent us the place for however long we'd like. Let's say we're renting it for 30 days. First make sure the Script Type scroll-bar is on Quest (not Object). Here is what should be started...

-------------------------------

scriptname aaaHomeScript

short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

End


=================

11b). Type that up and close/save it. Click OK (closing the quest window) and reopen the quest window.

11c). Find the script in the Quest Data tab's script scroll-bar. Click OK and reopen.

11d). And here is the rest of the script.

------------

scriptname aaaHomeScript

short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (aaaHouseAgentRef.Rent == 1)
If (Timer == 0)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1

EndIf
EnfIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 29)

If (Player.GetInCell Cell != 1)
Set Timer to 0
aaaFrontDoorRef.lock 100
set aaaHouseAgentRef.rent to 0

Message "Your home rental has expired", 36

EndIf
EndIf
EndIf

End


----------------------------

So... this timer ensures that several things will happen. When the agent has been paid 300 gold, this begins the timer's script. After 30 days have passed, this script now LOCKS the front door with a "Needs a Key" lock. An easier lock can be placed here if you'd like. Just change 100 to any number between 1 and 99, if you want a situation in which the house can possibly be broken into. This door will ONLY Lock if the character is not inside the cell though, ensuring the character won't get locked in. There is also a message which tells the player when the rental terms are over, which will stay onscreen 36 seconds. This part is optional and may be game-breaking for some, but it helps to know if the quest is working, or not.

Finally, in the line which says StartDay, note that I put 29 instead of 30. The game always seems to add an extra day.

Optional: If desired, the game can also give the character the key, which opens the front door. Make this key a Quest Item, so it can't be dropped, and then picked up later on after the rental has expired. This key can get added via dialog, at the moment of rental (player.AddItem aaaFrontDoorKey 1 would go into the Result Script box). This key can also be removed after 30 days have passed. The Main Script is used to remove this key, once the timer is finished, by putting Player.RemoveItem aaaFrontDoorKey 1 into the second block of If/EndIf texts, under the line which says aaaFrontDoorRef.lock 100. Adding a key during the rental phase is more necessary in Fallout than it is in Oblivion (Fallout doors tend to lock themselves prematurely).


12a). TOPICS tab
Now, it's time to finally going to add dialog and Topics which will allow the agent to sell the place. Selling is not nearly as complicated as renting. Click on the Buy topic you created before, and change its Topic Text to something appropriate. "How much to buy the place?" or whatever. And add some appropriate text like as a Response. "It's your lucky day! We're asking just 2000 gold."

Conditions look like this:

GetIsID aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00


12b). Let's say the place does cost 2000 gold. In the Choices box, make a choice which says includes a Yes response, and one which includes a No response: aaaBuyYes and aaaBuyNo. Add both of these into the Editor ID as well.

12c). For the aaaBuyYes topic, if the character has the 2000 gold, everything moves forward, and the entire quest comes to an end.

Conditions:

GetIsId aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetGold NONE >= 2000


Make sure "Run on Target" is toggled ON for GetGold.

12d). Result Script is very simple: Player.SetStage aaaQuestName 100

12e). Make a second response for aaaBuyYes, in which the character wishes to buy the place, but hasn't got enough gold. "Ahhm. Seems you haven't enough. I asked specifically for 2000 gold!!!"

GetIsID aaaHouseAgent == 1.00 AND
GetStage aaaQuestName == 5.00 AND
GetGold NONE < 2000


12f). Toggle Goodbye on for this response, if the agent becomes haughty, angry, or whatever. mad.gif Or maybe the agent remains cordial. Don't toggle goodbye, if this is so, and make the agent smile.


13a). QUEST STAGES tab
Go to the final stage (I am calling this Stage 100). Add a Log Entry, denoting that the house, the warehouse, the loft, etc. has been purchased. "I have decided to purchase the home.... bla bla bla."

Result Scripts should be....

Player.RemoveItem Gold001 2000
Player.AddItem aaaFrontDoorKey 1
SetQuestObject aaaFrontDoorKey -1
StopQuest aaaQuestName


> The "SetQuestObject" script is only necessary if the key has been made into a quest item earlier for the rental phase. If it hasn't, don't worry about this script.

> Since we're purchasing this house and the agent will never talk to us again, he / she simply gives us the key we made in step 1a.

13b). Don't forget to toggle Complete Quest on.


14). Topics tab
Finally, fill in the Topic and dialog which causes the PC to back out of buying the place. This is the topic I called aaaBuyNo earlier. "2000 is too much," or whatever. Again, the NPC's response can be haughty if you'd like. Conditions are just the same GetIsID as before, along with the GetStage pertaining to Stage 5, or whatever number you chose for the quest's middle stage.

Voila.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 31 2023, 08:01 PM


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Renee
post Aug 12 2018, 04:13 PM
Post #25


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Joined: 19-March 13
From: Ellicott City, Maryland



Cripes, it's been since JUNE since I've added one of these?

This one is going to teach how to add songs to a radio station in Fallout 3. Last summer it was my goal to get heavy metal into Janet Telia's game, because in my RP with her, there was some sort of stash of all kinds of modern music, and she grew up on metal.

SubRosa tried to teach me how to do add songs to radio last summer, but I wasn't able to get it back then. I figured out my own way though. It requires a radio station mod which can be found here: On the Road Radio Now, this may seem unethical, since I'm tearing into somebody else's mod. I'm not going around claiming the author's work to be mine, at least.

-----------------------------------------------

1). First step is to find some songs in mp3 format. On my computer, they will show up as HP Connected Music Files (colored red). There are all sorts of ways to get music onto computers nowadays, legally, or gray-area-gally. emot-ninja1.gif

2). Copy/paste these songs over to Fallout 3 > Data > Sound > Songs > Radio > OnTheRoadRadio. As an example, I am going to add the song 10:15 Saturday Night by The Cure.

3). Open up the GECK. File > Data > OnTheRoadRadio.esp. Make this esp active. (duh)

4). OBJECT window
Go to Miscellaneous > Sound. The added songs are in the right folder, but we can't see them yet. This is because their name hasn't been transformed to something that the GECK wants to see.

So right-click > New into the Editor ID. A panel should pop up.

5). For ID, choose anything you'd like to name your song but it HAS to start with the letters MUS in its beginning. So for example, I'm going to type MUS1015SaturdayNight. It's possible to do the same trick to get our music at the very top of the pile, by adding 'aaa' up there. So MUSaaa1015SaturdayNight.

NOTE: If this is your first time adding a song into the GECK, continue to step 6a. If a song has already been added and you just want to add another, go to step 11a.


6a). Click on the Add Sound File button. It should automatically find Fallout 3's Data > Sound folder. You can then manually direct into the OnTheRoadRadio folder (Data > Sound > Songs > Radio > OnTheRoadRadio). Find the song just added into this folder, and click OK. The song should show up in the greyed-out button you just clicked.



Note that there are Play and Stop buttons. These don't seem to do anything, unfortunately.

7). Below those two buttons, there are two tabs: Main and Attenuation. Start with MAIN. There are three sliders, and the first two don't get touched for some reason. But move 'Static Attenuation" to -12.33 db.

Note: I am not sure what this does. Maybe it adds a slight bit of static to the song, making it seem as though it's more on the radio? Hmm. 12.33 is used every time, though.


8). Frequency Adjustment can be left at 0.

And only the 'Dialog sound' toggle is going to be clicked ON.

'Looping" can be kept on None, and the two sliders at the bottom can be kept at Midnight.

9). ATTENUATION tab
I have no idea what any of the sliders on this page do, but the game has them set up like this:

100
50
20
5
0

'Reverb Attenuation Control' is set at 80.

...and the very bottom slider (Priority) is set on Default. Leave this slider alone. I tried putting it up to 'Highest,' to see if it would play a particular song first, but this didn't happen in-game.

Basically, we're not going to touch any of these sliders, but just make sure they all read what's supposed to be there.

10). Click OK. Now the song is in the game, but not on the radio. If this is the first time a song has been manipulated to appear in the Sound window, continue on to step 12. Steps 11a through 11d are for those who are adding additional songs.


11a). Right-click > Edit on the song (or one of the songs) previously added. For me, this was MUSaaa1015SaturdayNight.

11b). Change the ID. I just added "Ride My See Saw" by the Moody Blues, so I'm changing this to MUSaaaRideMySeeSaw.

11c). Click on the Add Sound File button (this is the gray rectangle below the ID slot). Find the song in the Songs > OnTheRoadRadio folders. Select the song, and click OK.

11d). Click OK, closing the Sound panel, saving as a New Form if the original song was not to be overwritten. Everything else, such as that pesky Static Attenuation slider, has already been set up.


12). Use the main toolbar and Save!

I am going to describe how to add songs by overwriting what's already contained in OnTheRoadRadio.esp, and then I'll discuss how to make a New list. For those who want to overwrite, continue to Step 13.
For those who want to learn to make a new list, go to Step 16.


13). OBJECT window
Now, go to Actor Data > Quest. Find the OnTheRoadRadio quest. Double-click on it.

Note: At the top of the page is a quest which has something to do with OnTheRoadRadio, however, it does not have an Editor ID, so ignore this quest. Look for a second OnTheRoadRadio, which is listed under Editor ID.


14a). RADIO tab.
In the Display Text window (Windows 8 users: this is the tall, vertical window on the left. It'll be greyed-out and will need to be dragged from the top left), right-click > New > Add Topic. Right-click > Add Topic and make a new radio list.

I am not sure if there is some limitation here, as to how many songs can get added overall... I have recently installed GNR Enhanced, which adds 100 songs though, so I think we're safe adding as many as we wish. Anyway,


15a). Left-click on the top OnTheRoadRadioList. Now double left-click on one of the songs in the Info window. I am going to overwrite Beautiful Baby.

15b). In the Response Text area, delete the text that's already there, and write the name of the song which is going to overwrite Beautiful Baby. This name does not have to be written en CamelCase, so I'm putting 10:15 Saturday Night instead of 1015SaturdayNight.

15c). Click the button next to Sound File. Find the name of the song added earlier (MUSaaa1015SaturdayNight for instance). Double left-click on this name, and press OK. Note that some of sound items on this list actually DO make sound, when clicked on or highlighted accidentally. This seems to be hit-or-miss though.

15d). Click OK, closing the Quest window, and Save.

Save after EVERY song. If the GECK refuses to save (there's a spinning blue circle staying onscreen forever) it could be that the song being added can't be put into the game for some reason, even if it works outside the game. Maybe, maybe not. If this happens, try seeing if one of the "Warning" panels which randomly show up sometimes has not been clicked "Yes" or "Yes to all". This panel will sometimes be underneath the GECK itself as a separate window. If this panel is here, close it.

And if there's no Warning panel, maybe it's time to Ctrl + Alt + Delete and restart computer if this blue circle happens. sad.gif

15e). Since all the songs in this mod play randomly, it's a good idea to go through each song we DON'T want to play, and remove their Link To and Link From topics. Once we're back in the game, On The Road Radio should only play those which still have their Link To and Link From topics intact. Go into the game, and make sure the songs which have been chosen actually play in the game.

15f). Later on if more songs are being overwritten, make sure to right-click > Add Topic into the Link To box, and find RadioHello. Click OK for every desired song. In the Link From box, right-click and then double-click on ANY.

Do not toggle anything else on or off. The mod author has already provided the correct toggles, such as Random and Run Immediately.


Below are the steps needed if making a new list of songs. Make sure the OnTheRoadRadio quest is open to its Radio tab.

16). Right-click > Add Topic into the left (tall, vertical) window. This causes the Select Topic window to pop up. Right-click > New into this window. Name the topic, and click OK.

17). Right-click > New into the Info window. Type the name of the song (and maybe the artist) into the Response Text box. We don't have to type in CamelCase, so Six Underground can go into the box instead of SixUnderground.

18). Click the Sound File button which says 'Select TESSound'. Another panel should pop up, which is called Sound Pick. This button is fidgety, and it may take a couple tries. Single-click into the Sound Pick window.

19). Now find MUSaaa1015SaturdayNight, or whatever song is being added. Find it manually by scrolling, or type the song's name. Again, as we type, the window will eventually locate the song.

NOTE: Typing into the window will cause a warning to pop up. âš  Simply select Yes to all.

20). Double left-click on the song you want to add. Click OK. The song should now be in the Info window, as well as the Response Text box.

21). Make sure "Run Immediately" and "Random" are both toggled on.

22). In the 'Link To' box, right-click > New > Add Topic, and find 'RadioHello.' It should be somewhere down toward the bottom of the list, but you can type its name until we find it.

23). In the Link From box simply choose ANY. Then click OK (closing the quest panel).

24). Go back to the main toolbar and SAVE.

Final steps (which applies only if you've made a new Song List): Each Song List has its own 'Greeting,' and if a new song list is being started (Step 14), a new Greeting will be needed as well. This is not the same as GREETING.

25). In the Display Text window, click on RadioHello.

26). In the Info window, right-click > New. In the panel which pops up, add Greetings X in the Response Text box, with X being a number which corresponds to the new song list we've added. So if this song list is 5, it should say Greetings 5.

27). Click OK. Now, double-click on that same Info topic (Greetings 5, or whatever). Look at the Voice Filename area. 'OnTheRoadRadio_RadioHello_XXXXXXXX_X' should automatically be there, with all the Xs randomized numbers. So what I am seeing here is OnTheRoadRadio_RadioHello_005EEE_1, but you may see some other numbers...

Click OK.

28). The flags chosen should be "Run Immediately" and "Random". But since a new Greetings info is being added, make sure "Random End" also gets toggled.

Important: whichever song list is at the bottom should have Random End toggled on. ONLY this bottom list should get this particular toggle, so whatever list is directly above should've had Random End toggled, right? Make sure this gets toggled OFF.

29). In the Link To box, find your newest song list (OnTheRoadRadioList5 in this example).

Ignore the Link From box.

30). Now, the final touch will be to look on the right side of the Radio quest panel. There is a scroll-down bar called Speaker. Select this and find 'Zimmer.' I assume this is supposed to be the DJ of this radio station, but so far I've never heard him in the game.

Click OK.

28). Hope and pray everything saves when we close the GECK.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 4 2024, 08:46 PM


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post Aug 26 2018, 08:52 PM
Post #26


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Joined: 19-March 13
From: Ellicott City, Maryland



Gun Tutorial Game: Fallout 3

This will not be as comprehensive as some others; it will merely blow through what all the different scroll-bars, slot numbers, and toggles do, and how they affect in-game play. In this case, I am going to edit something already pre-made by Bethesda, so nothing new is being made here. I don't know how to add totally new weapons into the game.

1). Fire up the GECK.

2). OBJECT window
Go to Items > Weapon. Find a weapon you'd like to make some changes to. Right-click > Edit on it. Give it a new ID and Name.

For me, this is going to be the very fast, very loud, but extremely inaccurate Assault Rifle. I'm not going to change its speed, or its weight, or anything like that. I will try to make it more accurate though. And also, I'm going to make its components last longer.

3). Here are all the items on the top half of the Weapon panel.

Script: Do not use.

Object Effect
: This scroll-bar will add certain effects to different weapons. For instance, we can put Moira Brown's "mole repellant" effect (which is found in a different part of the Object window) onto a Baseball Bat.

Ammunition: self-explanatory. This is what sort of Ammo your gun will require to operate.

Clip Rounds: Same as above. We can change the number of bullets in each clip.

Skill: another self-explanatory scroll-bar. Which skill does the gun affect?

Repair Item List: VERY important. Whatever is in this scroll-bar is what we can use to repair the gun with in-game. Since my assault rifle will be a unique item, found in very rare locations throughout my game, this doesn't mean it won't be able to be repaired. I'm leaving this on RepairAssaultRifle.

Equip Type: Again, self-explanatory. Don't change this away from SmallGuns, or whatever weapon is being edited.

Flags: These are various toggles which can be turned on and off, mostly self-explanatory. More detail about this can be found here...

http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php?title=Ammo

One thing of interest is "Ignores Normal Weapon Resistance" which is a holdover from Oblivion, affecting the way silver weapons can damage undead, for instance. In other words, this flag doesn't do anything in Fallout. (thank you 'Rosa).

"No Jam After Reload" ... guns which have low Health will sometimes stick (not fire) after a new clip is slammed into them.

"Minor Crime" if the gun is used in-game, it is going to be considered a crime!


4). Game Data tab
On the lower half of the Weapon panel, and on the middle-left of the page, are three tabs. The Game Data tab is selected by default, and there are also Art and Sound and Rumble tabs.

Weight: After all these years, I'm still not sure if Beth uses pounds or kilograms.

Health: Yes!!! Finally, a way to make weapons last longer before repairing sets in. Though this is cheating, there's always a way to explain more durable guns through roleplay, right?

Reach: Do not use. This is always set at 1.000 by Beth.

Fire Rate: Another duh.

Spread
: This controls how accurate or inaccurate a gun is. Assault weapons in general are pretty inaccurate. By default this is set to 4.000 for an Assault Rifle. Change this to a lower number for less chance of missing, but also less chance of randomly hitting.

Min Spread: Guns have a minimum and maximum spread.

Sight FOV: This has to do with how far "inwards" the player's vision narrows in while aiming.

Sight Usage:

Crit Damage: How much damage this gun will do through critical hits.

Aim Arc
: Not sure. Do not use.

Value: Durrr.

Damage: This is the base damage the gun will do most of the time, while Critical Damage is what it can do, some of the time. Obviously, it can be very easy to make a gun which oneshotkills everything in the Wasteland, so don't remove all challenge from the game, else you might also remove a lot of its fun!

Ammo Use: How many bullets get used up per round.

# Projectiles: How may bullets come out of the gun at once. I don't think it has anything to do with Ammo Use.

Limb Dmg Mult: When making critical hits through VATS, this is what causes more or less damage. Leave this at 1.000. I think problems with glitches can otherwise occur.

Base VATS To-Hit Chance: this number can also be affected by certain Perks the character has, as well as Luck.

Burst Shot / Long Bursts: Do not use.

Semi-Automatic Fire Delay Min / Max: These affect the delay between shots. Don't mess with this.

Resist: This scroll-bar determines if the gun has resistance against various types of damage, such as resistance against energy weapons, fire, and so on.

On Hit: Don't mess with this.

Range: There is a minimum or maximum range in which the bullet has effect. This is measured in Bethesda's cryptic "units", (the same units that get used for setting X-marker distances, for instance), so this does not measure standard or metric.

Action Points: How many "Action Points" the gun uses per shot.

Damage to Weapon Mult: How quickly health regenerates. Don't change this.


5). Art and Sound tab.
Most of this we won't mess with, because this tab affects all the various artworks (such as icons) that are already in the game.

An example of a time we'd want to mess in this tab though is let's say we want to make a pistol shoot fire instead of bullets. If we have a 10mm Pistol, and make changes to it in the Game Data tab so that it uses Flamer Fuel, if we didn't change anything in the Art and Sound tab, the gun would still visually shoot 10mm ammo, even though the effect would be enemies burning up. We'd have to go into the Art and Sound tab to make the gun visually shoot flames, and also have the sound-effects for this as well.

To make a pistol which shoots fire, make all the changes in the Game Data tab, but then study the Art and Sound tab for a Flamer. Make the appropriate changes to the flaming pistol.

In most cases though, skip the Art and Sound tab.


6). Rumble tab.
This affects Xbox and Playstation controllers. We can make the motors in our controllers rumble more or less, amazingly.

Don't mess with this, in most cases.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 29 2018, 01:57 PM


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SubRosa
post Aug 26 2018, 08:59 PM
Post #27


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Joined: 14-March 10
From: Between The Worlds



Ignores Normal Weapon Resistance is a holdover from the older Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion and Morrowind. It is for things like Silver and Daedric weapons, that can harm ghosts and other critters that are immune to normal weapons. It does not do anything in the Fallout games. I think it didn't work in Skyrim either.


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Renee
post Sep 2 2018, 12:55 PM
Post #28


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Joined: 19-March 13
From: Ellicott City, Maryland



Thanks. I changed the info in my previous post.

Repeatable Bounty Quests, Game: TES IV: Oblivion

This one is going to discuss how to make a revolving, never-ending, set of bounty quests, similar to what Skyrim has, when we get bandit raids from innkeepers. My version is different from Skyrim's though, in several ways. Bottom line: If you're the type of gamer who wants to be sent off to do random kill-type missions, which are also repeatable, this is what is going to be taught in this post.

Here is what I decided to create in my game. Count Marius Caro begins to sponsor endeavors to clear out certain lairs of whatever scummy enemies they hold. My character (Lady Saga) will be able to go into Leyawiin's castle, speak to a certain NPC agent, and then select a location to plunder. Once she finds the location and eradicates a specific boss, the game informs the player that the boss has been taken care of. And now a reward can be collected back in Leyawiin's castle.

Though this sounds like just another kill quest, again, the main difference is this one can respawn itself. And multiple locations can be added.



1a). Fire up the Oblivion Construction Set.

1b). First thing to do is start a new quest. Give it an ID. Quest Name is not important (as will be seen, the name of these quests will never appear in-game), but you can name it just for reference, here in the Construction Set. For this lesson, I am giving an ID called aaaBountyQuest, which can be changed to whatever you'd like.

1c). In the quest's Data tab, start a script which looks like this...

-------------------------

scriptname aaaBountyQuestScript

short DoOnce


------------------------------

"aaaBountyQuestScript" can be made more specific, especially if you want to make this script more regional. In my game for instance, I've got aaaLeyawiinBountyQuestScript.

1d). Change the Script Type scroll bar from Object to Quest.

Save that script (using the save icon) and close it. Click OK, closing the quest window. Reopen it, find the script you just started, select it, and click OK (closing the quest window again).


Next, we're going to edit a letter, a town-based NPC, and an enemy NPC. All of this happens in the steps below.


2a). OBJECT window > Items > Books
Edit a handbill, or a letter, or a note, etc. Give whatever parchment you decide to edit a new ID. It makes sense to associate this ID name with whatever lair it's going to direct the player to. My first note will send the player to Undertow Cavern for instance, so I'm calling the note's ID aaaUndertowQuestNote, and then changing its Name to Undertow Cavern Order.

2b). Change the note's Book Text too, of course. Write some material describing that (1) there is a problem at a nearby lair (whether it's Undertow or somewhere else), and (2) a reward can be had after this lair is dealt with. Write something like...

Hear ye, hear ye!

By order of the County of Leyawiin, this parchment shall direct its bearer towards the subterranean dwelling known as Undertow Cavern. Once riddance and eradication of Undertow's scum has been accomplished, We of the County of Leyawiin shall have knowledge of its leader being taken down, through the glass of our specialized crystal ball. Thence, the bearer of this note shalt return toward our magnificent domain, and payment of 200 gold shall be dispensed.

~ Count Marius Caro~


2c). Ahem. It's a good idea to make this note a Quest Item. Here is why: This method of quest-making does not use stages at all. So the note is the only reminder a player will have, explaining where to go.

And don't worry. This quest item/note won't get stuck in inventory forever; it's going to get removed later on, or its quest-status is going to get removed.


3a). OBJECT window > Actors > NPC
Edit a named (not generic) Bethesda NPC who is not associated with Shivering Isles. This is going to be the guy or lady who will dispense quest locations.

If you have already made an agent and wish to reuse him or her, you can just skip to step 4a, whcih teaches how to make the enemy.

3b). Remove the NPC's script (if there is one), and also get rid of any AI. Change the NPC's Class to Agent. Edit the NPC in any manner you'd like.

I edited Agamir, removed his script, changed his Class from Thief to Agent, amd removed all his AI and Factions. Changed his ID and Name, bla bla bla. I transformed Agarmir into the "Leyawiin Quest Agent". Since this agent lives in Leyawiin Castle, I made sure to add him into the LeyawiinFaction (so he'll occasionally gossip about local topics), and also LeyawiinCastleFaction.


An optional step is to give the agent some AI (skip to step 4 if you just want to move on to the quest-making part). I gave him AI which causes him to Travel from the castle's court area into its Servants' Quarters. Most important though, I made a 'Use Item At' package called aaaLeyawiinAgentOnDuty. I then toggled Must Complete on. And changed the Time scroll-bar to 9, with a Duration of 8, meaning that he'll be "on duty" from 9 to 5. I gave him a desk to sit at (WorldObjects > Static > LowerClassTable01), and a chair to sit upon (World Objects > Furniture > UCChair05L). Gave the chair a Reference ID so the agent would sit down while "on duty". All of these furniture pieces were put off to the side of Leyawiin Castle's Great Hall.

.....If you want to do something simliar, just make two Travel packages: one which causes the NPC agent to travel to some other location, and another which causes him/her to return to work. The third AI package (Use Item At) makes the agent sit down from 9 to 5. I went into the agent's Use Item At again, and clicked on the Location tab. Toggled 'Near Reference' on, and then pushed the Select Reference in Render Window button. Double-clicked on the chair added earlier. Clicked OK.

Overall, he will travel to Leyawiin's court area at 7 am, sit down at 9, and stay there until 5. After 5, he walks to the Servants' Quarters, where he basically stands around doing nothing. Lol. You don't have to do all this. I like dynamic NPCs though. smile.gif


4a).
OBJECT window > NPC
Find a generic enemy who will be appropriate for whichever cell you'd like to plunder. Since I chose Undertow Cavern (which hosts Black Bow Bandits) I went into the Redguard section, and then edited BanditBlackBowBoss4Male1.

4b). Change ID, and change Name if you'd like. Toggle Respawn on, and toggle No Low Level Processing off.

Since the NPC I edited is already a Black Bow Bandit, he already has the correct factions and AI. It's always good to double-check these features, though. wink.gif

4c). Stats tab
Now's the time to make the enemy boss into whatever he or she is supposed to be. Whether he's a wimp, or an über. viking.gif Take the time to set the enemy up for combat.

Tip: There are two basic ways to set up the enemy's Health, Magicka, and Fatigue: these stats can either be fixed, or Leveled. PC Level Mult will make an enemy who levels with the player/character, or below / above the PC. This is my favorite way to set up enemies. Problem is, I have found that sometimes the game's engine screws up when respawning the enemy, leaving him or her with zero Health, and (sometimes) a huge negative number for Fatigue.

The only way I've found to fix this is to click PC Level Mult off. This will cause the CS to automatically choose Auto Calc Stats instead. Click Auto Calc Stats off too. Now it is possible to choose any numbers, not just for Health, Magicka, and Fatigue, but also for all the Attributes, and wherever else there is a slot which can be modified.

It is also possible to use scripts, so that these numbers get generated in real-time back in-game. But this too me seems overly complicated, like it could also welcome new problems in the future. I like keeping things simple.


4d). Inventory tab
All generic Bethesda enemies use Leveled Lists to determine what gets added into their inventories, so I personally don't mess with this tab. Leveled lists give random things to NPCs, to wear and use. Because of this, the enemy boss will be a little bit different every time he gets encountered, since he'll be wearing different armor / carrying different weapons, every time he respawns.

Go ahead and add or subtract whatever you'd like, though.



5a). CELL + RENDER windows
Place the NPC enemy into whichever cell he /she belongs in. It's a good idea to put him/her into a final room, so that the PC will be forced to defeat most of the lair before the boss is found. Once the enemy is in place, he or she might be in underclothes. ohmy.gif This is okay. Those leveled lists will handle this dilemma; giving the NPC something to wear, and carry, once we're back in the game.

5b). Give the enemy a Reference ID. For this tutorial, I am calling it aaaEnemyBossRef, but for my actual game I chose aaaUndertowBossRef. It's a good idea to copy whatever ID is chosen, so it can be pasted into scripts later on.

5c). Toggle Persistent Reference on, if it's not already on.

5d). Also, start a script for the enemy that looks like this....

---------------------------------

scriptname aaaEnemyBossScript

short Dead


-------------------------------

Substitute "EnemlyBossScript" with whatever name is more specific. In my game, I've got aaaUndertowBossScript.

5e). Save that script (using the save icon), and close it. Click OK, closing the NPC's panel, and click OK again, closing his or her Reference panel. If you're editing the NPC from the Object window (instead of its Reference window) you won't need to close a Reference panel.

5f). Reopen the NPC's panel(s), and find the script you started earlier. Click OK again (closing the NPC and Reference panels if both were opened) SAVE all progress using the main toolbar, and reopen the NPC's panel(s) again.

Though all of that opening & closing seems redundant, it's actually necessary to follow those steps, in that order. If you don't, sometimes problems can happen. The script might give annoying error messages later on when we're trying to save it, for instance.

5g). Now, to add more to the script.

------------------------------------

scriptname aaaEnemlyBossScript

short Dead

Begin OnDeath

If (aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead == 1)
Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 2
Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 2

Message "The leader of X has been killed", 36

EndIf
End


---------------------------------------------------

Substitute "aaaEnemyBossRef" with the Reference ID of your enemy, if you gave him/her some different Reference ID name.

Substitute X with whatever location name was chosen.

Note the message, too. Since this method of quest-making does not use stages, it's important to be informed of the boss's death in real-time, just so you know the quest is working. This message will not show up as a quest update (it will not pause the game). If you still find this to be immersion-breaking, just delete that whole line of text.


5h). Use the Save icon to save the script before it's closed. Click OK on the enemy's information panel(s).

5i).. RENDER window: Get back into the cell where the enemy is. Now go into the OBJECT window > WorldObjects > Static, and pull an XMarkerHeading from the Object window into the Render window. Give this XMarkerHeading a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaXMarkerHeading for this lesson, but this can be changed to something more specific, as per the enemy's name, for instance. The XMarkerHeading be discussed later in this post.


6a). QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Reopen the quest which got started earlier in this tutorial.

6b). Priority can be anywhere from 10 to 70, depending if the quest is going to 'compete' with others out there. For instance, if you only use the one NPC agent added during 3a, Priority can be set low. If you're going to include other NPCs (let's say Count Marius Caro or some other NPC gets spoken to, to introduce the character to this new concept of bounty hunting) Priority should be set higher, since other quests associated with the extra NPCs might prevent the bounty quest dialog from showing up.

6c). Make sure Start Game Enabled is toggled on (it should be, by default) and add GetIsPlayableRace == 1.00 goes into the Quest Conditions window.

6d). Return to the script. Time to add a few more lines of text, so that it'll now look like this...

--------------------------------------

scriptname aaaBountyQuestScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay


----------------------------------

Close and save, bla bla bla...

7a). Topics tab
As usual, start with a GREETING. "How fares thee? ... Have you come to take down one of our nearby locations?" is an example of what the NPC Agent could first say. Here are the Conditions.

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaBountyQuest', DoOnce == 0.00


Substitute "aaaQuestAgent" with whatever ID you actually chose.

7b). Use the Add Topics box to to add a custom topic, and (as usual) add this topic into the Editor ID window as well. I am calling this topic "aaaBountyQuest01"

7c). During aaaBountyQuest01 (or whatever you named your topic), the Agent explains what's going on locally, with forts and caves and ruins all harboring lots of baddies. The agent then asks if we'd like to see a list of possible places to plunder.

The cool thing about this type of quest (once it is all set up) is we can add several locations to go to, later on. And all of these locations get chosen through dialog.

Conditions from the GREETING can be copy / pasted. Again, they go like this...

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaBountyQuest', DoOnce == 0.00


7d). In the Result Script box, type this: Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 1

7e). In the Choices window, right-click > New and make a second custom topic, dealing with whichever lair is being featured. So in my game, I've got aaaUndertow as a topic ID.

Add that topic into the Editor ID window, too. This topic is going to be the first locational topic. As I said, more locations (and topics for each location) can be added later, each one getting its own dialog.

7e). For this first locational topic, do all the usual steps: change Topic Text to something in plain English (if needed). Make some dialog which furthers the conversation "Ah, so you'd like to head to Undertow Cavern...." The agent explains whatever local problems the town has been having with Undertow, then. "Located off the west gate, right above the town. Such a menace to the stable and travellers below..."

Conditions go like this....

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaaEnemyBossRef', Dead == 0.00


That script variable function is an awesome tool, by the way. Variables are what often cause the game to allow, or not allow, all sorts of things. Same goes for the quest variable used in the first Greeting. Script and quest variables shall get used a lot during this entire process.

7f). If you want to make this moment into a Yes or No choice, use the Choices window to add Yes and No topics. If not, skip to step 8.

.... The "Yes" choice is going to be specific to Undertow Cavern (ID name is aaaYesUndertow, for instance). The "No" choice is going to be much more generic (aaaNo), and will pertain to any moment the player clicks on "No" during conversation. In fact, if you already have a "No" topic from previous quests, you can just reuse this.

7g). Add both Choices (aaaYesLocation and aaaNo) into the Editor ID as well, and add dialog for each one. If you want some dialog which explains where the lair is, you can type this in too. "Let me put that location on your map."

Conditions for the "yes" topic are the usual GetIsID and script variable...

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaaEnemyBossRef', Dead == 0.00


In the Result Script box, type these in....

Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 1
Player.AddItem aaaQuestNote 1
ShowMap UndertowCavernMapMarker


Substitute "aaaEnemyBossRef" with the Reference ID of your enemy.

Substitute "aaaQuestNote" with the ID of the note made during step 2..

Substitute "UndertowCavernMapMarker" with the name of the location, unless you also are using Undertow, of course.



8a). Assuming you don't already have a "No" topic, make some dialog like "STOP WASTING MY TIME!" in response to our character opting out. Only one Condition is needed, which is the same GetIsID from previous steps.

8b). Result Script should be Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 0

8c). Toggle Goodbye on, to simulate the Quest Agent losing temper, if you'd like! mad.gif


Note: notice the QuestVariable up above in step 8b. It started out as 0, changed to 1, and now it's 0 again. What's that all about? Well, the way this bounty quest works is: we can only choose one quest location at a time. This is important. If we accept a quest (Undertow Cavern, for instance) and then immediately accept another one (assuming you write in more than one location), this will confuse the game's dialog, and screw it all up. It is possible to make more than one location at a time viable, but the amount of work it'd take is just not worth it. Much better to keep things simple!

So it's important to have a way to make sure only one quest location at a time gets focused on. But it's ALSO important that dialog is able to reset itself to the very beginning ("How fares thee?") so that the entire process can be started over.

>> This entire bounty quest idea works on timer scripts, which will get written up in a few moments. After a location gets accepted, its leader get killed, it is these timers which cause the quest to reset.


9a). Go back into the first locational topic (the one which describes where to go, and why to go there). Right-click > New into the Info window. Write some dialog which explains that a certain location has already been plundered.

For instance, let's say Undertow Cavern has already been eradicated, its timer has not reset, and its enemy has not respawned. The player forgets this though, and clicks on Undertow Cavern. Dialog in this situation can go like "Hmm. Seems you have already cleared that location. No need to go there again; Undertow's enemies have not returned. Would you like to choose another location?"

9b). Conditions ....

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaEnemyBossRef', Dead >= 2.00


9c). In the Choices window, add any other locations which have been set up so far. In my game for instance, I've got aaaFortDoublecross and aaaFortTeleman in this window. Of course, if this is the first time setting all of this up, there won't be any other locations, yet.

Also, add in that "no" topic again, so the player has a choice to opt out entirely.


10a). Quest Data tab
Time to finish up the main script. Here is what it'll look like. Again, this will be a timer script.

------------------------------------
scriptname aaaBountyQuestScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)

If (aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3)
Set Timer to 0
Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

End


---------------------------------------------------

* To summarize, the script above will start its timer after we speak to the NPC agent, and are rewarded. The dialog for this reward has not been written yet, but we'll get to that later. After the timer starts, it will reset the quest once 3 days have passed. After those 3 days have passed, voila, the agent's dialog updates, which can potentially send us off to that same lair again. In that lair, the NPC enemy respawns, along with the cell he or she is in.

** It is possible to change the timer to your liking. If 3 days seems too soon, just change the "3" in If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3) to some other number. Changing this to 10 will make sure dialog doesn't reset until 10 days have passed, for instance.

*** 3 days happens to be the realistic minimum here, though. Since Bethesda cells don't reset until 3 days have passed, it's pointless to make dialog which resets before then (sending us off to that same lair), if the cell itself hasn't reset yet. Only for testing purposes should you try less than 3 days. Making the script reset after one day, for instance, is an experiment you can try just to see if the original dialog resets.


10b). Save the script and close it, close the Quest window, save, bla bla bla....

These next steps are optional, and deal with adding map markers and quest targets. If you don't want to add these, skip to step 12.


11a). CELL + RENDER windows
Go into the cell where the enemy got added, and find the way out of this cell, by clicking on the lair's Door Markers. Since I chose Undertow Cavern, this isn't such a task for me. wink.gif I only have one cell to exit from.

11b). Once you are outside this cell, try to find its Map Marker. Hopefully there is one! If not, you'll need to make one. Anyway, leave this marker on-screen.

11c). QUEST window > Quest Targets tab
Right-click into the large Target Ref window and select New.

11d). Click on the Select Reference in Render Window button, and double-click on the Map Marker.

11e). Right-click > New into the Conditions box, and add GetScriptVariable 'aaaEnemyBossRef', Dead == 1.00

11f). Go back into the Topics tab and find the "Yes" response (if you added this). Add some more dialog that goes "I will mark the location on your map."

11g). In the Yes topic's Result Script box, type ShowMap XMapMarker, with "X" being whichever lair the quest pertains to. So an example is ShowMap UndertowCavernMapMarker


To summarize, by now there should be five topics in this quest: the initial GREETING, the initial topic which follows the GREETING (in which the agent explains where some trouble areas are in Cyrodiil), a topic which discusses a specific lair (Undertow Cavern, in my case). Then there should be Yes and No topics, with the "Yes" being a specific topic sending the player to a specific lair, and the "No" topic being more generic.

12). Save, goshdarnit!


13a). Time to make a second GREETING, which shows up if the PC has started a quest, but has not completed it yet. "Ah, you are back. How's your latest expedition coming along?"

Conditions ....

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaBountyQuest', DoOnce == 1.00


13b). Use the Add Topics box to move the conversation toward the same custom topic created in step 7b. This time though, write some dialog which says "Seems you've already got a quest to follow. Finish that one up, then come see me."

13c). Copy all the conditions from the GREETING just above, and paste them into this "Seems you have already...." topic. Toggle Goodbye on, if you'd like.


14a). Time to write the reward stuff. Start a final GREETING in which the agent is glad to see us return. "You've made it back!" Give the agent a surprised look, perhaps. The agent is amazed how good our toon is.

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'aaaBountyQuest', DoOnce == 2.00


14b). Use the Add Topics box to link to a "reward" topic. If youv'e already got one of these made from previous quests, you can just use this again.

14c). "Here is your reward.... bla bla bla" says the agent.

GetIsId 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaEnemyBossRef', Dead == 2.00


14d). In the Result Script box, type ...

Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 0
Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 3
Player.AddItem Gold001 X
Player.RemoveItem aaaQuestNote 1


Substitute .... well, you know what to do by now, right? wink.gif

The "X" can be whatever number you'd like. 200 gold, 2000 gold, whatever.

Note the RemoveItem part, which removes the note which initially sends the player off to Undertow, or wherever. If you made this note a Quest Item, now you don't have to worry about getting it out of inventory. Another option: if you want to keep this note in some desk (perhaps your character is some sort of pack rat) yet the note is a Quest Item, just type SetQuestObject aaaQuestNote -1

Now for the final touch. Since the enemy boss is not generic, he or she tends to stay wherever he/she winds up. In other words, if the boss fight causes the player-character to flee to another location (even outside the lair) and the boss gets killed in that other location, THIS is where the boss will respawn. So here's how to put the boss back into that initial room. In fact, the boss will respawn exactly where the XMarkerHeading from step 5i was placed.

15a). OBJECT window > World Objects > Static
Click on anything in the right side of the Object window, and press X.

15b). Go into the lair where the enemy boss is located (unless the Render window is still showing this boss).

Now, if the enemy is in a multi-celled lair (for instance, if the enemy is in UndertowCavern02 instead of UndertowCavern01) you'll want to get into that initial cell, in this case, UndertowCavern01. If the enemy is in a lair which only has one cell, that'll be less work.

15c). Get to the initial cell's entry door. Typically, this is going to be the very FIRST door the PC walks through, to get into that initial cell.

15d). Go back to the Object window, and drag an XMarker from this window into the initial cell. Try to place this XMarker somewhere right behind the initial door, right on its floor. Give this XMarker a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaXMarker for this lesson.

15e). Save.

16a) QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Open up the main script. And add this script anywhere onto this page between its Begin / End block...

If (aaaNPCBossRef.Dead == 1)
If (Player.GetDistance aaaXMarker <= 500)
aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef

Message "I have entered the lair called X. The evil, it simmers from within...", 30


EndIf
EndIf


This script will ensure that the enemy boss gets moved back where it should be, in real-time, and its message lets the player know the script has worked. The only possible remaining issue is if that enemy somehow got located outside of his/her lair. If so, another idea is to attach aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef into the Result Script box when the reward is given.

Using the XMarker script works most reliably though, since it's very rare the boss will get outside that lair and into the open world. This script can go anywhere within the Begin GameMode / End block. To keep things nifty, I like to put it outside of any other If/EndIf blocks. Example of the final main script is below.

scriptname aaaBountyQuestScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)

If (aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3)
Set Timer to 0
Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

If (aaaNPCBossRef.Dead == 1)
If (Player.GetDistance aaaXMarker <= 500)
[indent]aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef

Message "I have entered the lair called X. The evil, it simmers from within...", 30

EndIf
EndIf

End


And that is all. All sorts of dialog can be written to enhance this type of quest. Greetings and topics can be made for townspeople for instance, making them praise and glorify our character through random dialog (or curse him or her, if they happen to feel compassion toward baddies). But for the basic revolving quest itself, everything above shall send the player off to one initial lair, which can be repeated later on (days, months, years later). Replayability, that's what it's all about.

In the next post, I'm going to discuss how to add extra locations to this same quest.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 17 2019, 02:11 AM


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post Sep 29 2018, 06:50 PM
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Another tip for making these bounty quests: I like to keep a Notepad page open while using the Construction Set. It helps to copy/paste three pieces of information from the CS onto this Notepad page: the note's name (aaaBountyQuestNote or whatever), the Reference ID for the enemy, plus its 'dead' variable (aaaEnemyBossRef.dead or whatever), and the quest's variable name (aaaBountyQuest.doonce). The name of the XMarkerHeading and XMarker can also get pasted onto this page.

All of this helps so that those who want to try to make these quests have an open source to copy/paste all those complicated terms from, whenever these terms are needed.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 13 2019, 08:07 PM


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post Oct 12 2018, 02:41 AM
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This post goes with the one above, and is going to show how to add extra locations to repeatable bounty quests. A lot of steps get skipped, while some get repeated.

It's a good idea to make each location one at a time. Put the enemy in some lair, write the quest, playtest it, and so on. This way, if there's some problem with the previous potion of the quest, this problem won't possibly compound later on.

For this lesson, I already have Undertow Cavern as a solid, repeatable location. Now I am going to add Fort Doublecross.


1a). OBJECT window > Items > Book
Find the previous note which was used for your first location, and edit this note. Change its ID, its Name, and (optional) leave Quest Item toggled on. I am calling this note aaaQuestNote2 for this lesson, but its actual in-game name is "aaaDoublecrossNote" and you can name the note whatever you'd like. It helps to associate the note's name with its corresponding location, of course.

1b). Change the note's Book Text. If this text already says something like "The Count and his people wish to see the eradication of X" (X being Undertow in my game), all that's needed then is to change the name of the old location to whatever new location is being added.

1c). Click OK, saving the note as a New Form.


2a). OBJECT window > Actors > NPC
Find a generic enemy who is appropriate for the second lair you have chosen.

2b). Change ID and Name.

2c). Toggle No low-level processing off, and toggle Respawn on.

2d). Double-check AI and Factions. AI is typically going to be two Wander packages: one for Interiors, and one for Exteriors .... and Faction is really important!! If the NPC is in the wrong faction, he/she could get pwned by some opposing faction before we've even dealt with them!

Get rid of any scripts, too. Move the Script scroll-bar up to NONE.

2e). Make any other changes you wish, to Stats, Inventory, facial features, whatever. Click OK, saving as a New Form.

Tip: It helps to toggle PC Level Mult and Auto-Calc Stats off, and enter fixed numbers into Health, Magicka, Fatigue, various Attributes (etc.) for the greatest chance that the enemy will respawn with those fixed numbers. I myself prefer using PC Level Mult, which causes the enemy to level with the PC, but I have also had problems with enemies respawning improperly, with zero Health and minus Fatigue.

2f). Place the enemy into whatever cell you've chosen. Give him or her a Reference ID. For convenience, copy this Ref Id so it can be pasted into scripts later. I am calling this Ref ID "aaaNPCenemy2Ref".

2g). Time to write the enemy's death script. Start with just the script's name, and the "short Dead" function...

---------------------------------

scriptname aaaNPCenemy2Script

short Dead


------------------------------

.... save that script, close it, close the NPC's panel and Reference panel (if you're editing from the Render window). Now, open both panels (or only one if you're editing from the Object window) and find the script. Select it. Close the NPC's panel(s). Reopen them, or it. Click the script button. Now's the time to add to this script, so in total, it'll look something like this...

----------------------------------

scriptname aaaNPCenemy2Script

short Dead

Begin OnDeath

If (aaaNPCenemy2Ref.Dead == 1)
Set aaaNPCenemy2Ref.Dead to 2
Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 2
Message "The leader of X has been killed", 36

EndIf

End


----------------------------------------------------------

Substitute "aaaNPCenemy2Script" with whatever name you chose, as needed.
Substitute "aaaNPCenem2Ref" with the Reference ID of the enemy.
Substitute X with the name of the location.

2h).. OBJECT window > WorldObjects > Static,
Pull an XMarkerHeading from the Object window into the Render window. Wherever this XMarkerHeading gets placed is where the enemy boss will respawn. Give this XMarkerHeading a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaXMarkerHeading for this lesson, but this can be changed to something more specific, as per the enemy's name, for instance. The XMarkerHeading be discussed later in this post.


3a). QUEST window > Topics tab
Open up the original bounty quest's Topics tab (for me, this includes Undertow). Thankfully, the same GREETING, and the same initial topic, can both be kept as-is. So in my game, the greeting ("How fares thee? Have you come to partake of more adventuring?") and the initial topic which links from that greeting ("As noted, we've got several problem areas which have become a local menace...") can both be kept, just like they are.

3b). In the initial topic's Choices box, there should already be one topic. This topic leads to whatever specific lair has already been added. So for me, once again, this is aaaUndertow, and also aaaNo, the topic which gives an option to back out. Now, it's time to add a third topic. This topic will lead to whatever second lair you'd like to plunder.

So for example, I've already got aaaUndertow and aaaNo here. Now I'm going to add aaaDoublecross.

Tip: if you wish these topics to show up in alphabetical order once you're back in-game, it is possible to remove one topic, and add it later. For instance, "aaaUndertow" is currently above "aaaDoublecross" in the Choices box, and this is how they'll appear in-game, if I don't rearrange them. Just right-click on each topic in the Choices box and select Remove Topic. Then add these topics back in, alphabetically. So now at the top, I'm seeing aaaDoublecross above aaaUndertow. This tip goes for the "no" topic, as well. I like having "no" as the very bottom choice.

3c). Right-click > New into the Editor ID window, and add the topic which leads to the second location.

3d).
Change the Topic Text slot (if needed) so that it's plain English. And add some text into the Info window, in which the quest agent explains what's going on at the second location. "Fort Doublecross, wretched place! The peoples of Brindlehome are constantly in fear and doubt, as they wish someone to come along and rid that fort's inhabitants....!"

3e). Right-click > New into the Conditions window. Add ....

GetIsID 'aaaQuestAgent' == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable 'aaaNPCenemy2Ref,' Dead == 0.00


Copy All those two conditions so they can be pasted later on. It also helps to have the enemy boss on-screen in the Render window, so you can simply double left-click on this enemy when choosing the script variable's reference.

3d). In the Choices box, add a Yes and a No topic. The Yes topic should be specific to whatever lair needs to get plundered (aaaYesDoublecross in my game). The No topic can be the same, generic no that's been used previously.

3e). Add the Yes topic into the Editor ID window. Change Topic Text (if needed) and add some dialog. "Yes! Glad to hear you are interested in downing Fort Doublecross..." Optional: add some dialog in which the agent explains a marker is getting added to the map.

3f). Paste the conditions from the previous locational topic (the GetIsID and GetScriptVariable) just as they are.

3g). In the Result Script box ...

Set aaaNPCenemy2Ref.Dead to 1
Player.AddItem aaaQuestNote2 1
ShowMap MapLocation


Substitute aaaQuestNote2 with whatever you named the note.

3h). Click OK (closing the Quest window) and save.


4a). Reopen the Quest window, and go into the second locational topic (this is aaaDoublecross, in my game). This is the topic which has a Yes and a No choice. Right-click > New into the Info window, and start second dialog response, in which the agent says "But you have already been to that location. Would you like to choose another?"

4b). Conditions go like...

GetIsID aaaQuestAgent == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable aaaNPCenemy2Ref, Dead >= 2.00


4c). In the Choices box, add topics which lead to any location which the player has NOT chosen yet. Make sure to add the "No"choice here, too. In my game's Choices box, I am seeing this...

aaaUndertow
aaaNo

Again, if there are already several locations listed here, these can be made alphabetical.

4d). Click OK (closing the Quest window). Save.

4e). Go back into any initial locational topic which includes "But you have already been to that location" (aaaUndertow for me), and add the second locational topic into its Choices box. Add the No topic as well, keeping things alphabetical if desired. I am seeing this...

aaaDoublecross
aaaNo


5a). QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Time to add more to the main script. At the top of the script, you should be seeing something like this...

-------------------------------

scriptname aaaBountyScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay


-----------------------------

.... now it's time to add more variable functions to this list, so that here is what you'll see at the top.

scriptname aaaBountyScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay

short StartDay2
short Timer2


It doesn't matter which order those extra lines of text get added. It helps to organize this text to your liking, though.

5b). Click the Save icon, and close the script. Close the quest window. Save. And reopen the quest window. Reopen the script too.

Altogether, the script should be looking like this now...

-------------------------------------------
scriptname aaaBountyScript

short DoOnce
short StartDay
short Timer

short StartDay2
short Timer2

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)

If (aaaNPCEnemyRef.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3)
Set Timer to 0
Set aaaNPCEnemyRef.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

End


---------------------------------------------------

....but a lot of extra lines are going to get added. In fact, an entire second timer script is getting added, so that in total, it'll look like this...


scriptname aaaBountyScript

short DoOnce
short StartDay
short Timer

short StartDay2
short Timer2

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)

If (aaaNPCEnemyRef.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3)
Set Timer to 0
Set aaaNPCEnemyRef.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer2 == 0)

If (aaaNPCEnemy2Ref.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay2 to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer2 to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer2 == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay2) >= 3)
Set Timer2 to 0
Set aaaNPCEnemy2Ref.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

End


-------------------------------------

As can be seen, the top timer deals with the first quest, associated with the first enemy. Now, there is a second timer (Timer2) which is associated with the second enemy. For every new enemy / quest / quest-location, you'll need to also add a new timer script! And again, both timer scripts will reset after three days have passed, though this reset can be changed if you'd like.

Note: I have found that a maximum of five locations can get added overall. Nothing wrong with going for more than five, per NPC agent's dialog, per town (so that I've got five in Leyawiin, five in Bravil, etc). But just keep in mind that I haven't tried more than 5.

5c). Save the script and close it. Close the Quest window and save all work.

At this stage, the player has gotten the quest, the second enemy has been killed, and now it's time for a reward.



6a). QUEST window, Topics tab
The return GREETING has already been written, and won't need to get altered. Instead, go to the Reward topic. Right-click > New into the Info window, and add some dialog. "The peoples of Blankenmarch thank thee, for taking care of Fort Doublecross..." is what'll go into my game.

6b). In the Conditions window, here is what goes....


GetIsID aaaQuestAgent == 1.00 AND
GetScriptVariable aaaNPCenemy2Ref, Dead == 2.00


6c). And here is what goes in the Result Script box...

Player.AddItem Gold001 X
Player.RemoveItem aaaQuestNote2 1
Set aaaBountyQuest.DoOnce to 0
Set aaaNPCEnemy2Ref.Dead to 3



And, time for the final bits. The script below gets added to the main script, and makes sure the enemy boss gets sent back into the cell where he/she initially started.


7a). OBJECT window > World Objects > Static
Click on anything in the right side of the Object window, and press X. Now go into the Render window. Chances are the enemy boss will still be onscreen, unless you moved away from this boss.

7b). If the enemy is in a multi-celled lair (for instance, if the enemy is in FortDoublecross02 instead of FortDoublecross01) you'll want to get into the initial cell, in this case, FortDoublecross01. If the enemy is in a lair which only has one cell, it'll be less work.

7c). Get to the initial cell's entry door. Typically, this is going to be the very FIRST door the PC walks through, to get into the initial cell.

7d). Go back to the Object window, and drag an XMarker from this window into the initial cell. Try to place this XMarker somewhere right behind the initial door, right on its floor, somewhere that the character will definitely walk across. Give this XMarker a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaXMarker for this lesson.

7e). Save.

7f). QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Open up the main script. And add this script anywhere onto this page between its Begin / End block...

If (aaaNPCBossRef.Dead == 1)
If (Player.GetDistance aaaXMarker <= 500)
aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef

Message "I have entered the lair called X. The evil, it simmers from within...", 30



EndIf
EndIf


This script will ensure that the enemy boss gets moved back where it should be, in real-time, and its message lets the player know the script has worked. The only possible remaining issue is if that enemy somehow got located outside of his/her lair. If so, another idea is to attach aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef into the Result Script box when the reward is given. It is also possible to use both scripts (one for the main script, another for the Reward's Result Script box) which is best of all.

Anyway, this script can go anywhere within the Begin GameMode / End block. To keep things nifty, I like to put it outside of any other If / EndIf blocks. Example of the final main script is below.

scriptname aaaBountyQuestScript

short DoOnce
short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)

If (aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead == 3)
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed
Set Timer to 1
EndIf
EndIf

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 3)
Set Timer to 0
Set aaaEnemyBossRef.Dead to 0

EndIf
EndIf

If (aaaNPCBossRef.Dead == 1)
If (Player.GetDistance aaaXMarker <= 500)
aaaNPCBossRef.MoveTo aaaMarkerHeadingRef

Message "I have entered the lair called X. The evil, it simmers from within...", 30

EndIf
EndIf

End



[b]9).[/9] Voila. Time for a glass of wine.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 5 2023, 09:14 PM


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post Oct 25 2018, 10:59 PM
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Lizard Men! -- Game: TES IV: Oblivion

*PIC*

This one is not very comprehensive. Just something neat I added into my own game.

In TES 1: Arena, there were no Argonian enemies, but there were lizard men. These were similar to the primitive, reckless creatures found in many of the tabletop games: DnD and others. I wanted to put lizard men back into the Elder Scrolls series, starting with Oblivion. Because they were in the first game, so there.

This is going to show how I got lizard men into my game, and also how I added them to Leveled Lists, so they'll appear as generic enemies. Mostly in monster and goblin lairs, but also in underwater outdoor locations.

1). OBJECT window > Actors > NPC > Argonian
Select either Male or Female, and then scroll down to the V section. Any of the Veyond Argonians can be used (VeyondArgBossMale1, for instance).

Funny thing. I never really noticed that Argonian enemies are actually pretty rare in the fourth game! But yeah, they don't appear as bandits or conjurers or any other generic enemy except Marauders, I think. This only furthers my quest to add these into the game. Lizard men are not the same as Argonians though, as we'll see.

2a). Edit one of the Veyond enemies. Change ID, change Name. Class can be changed to whatever enemy-class fits best, such as BanditMelee for one which primarily uses melee weapons.

Make any changes you'd like to Stats, but make sure No Low Level Processing stays toggled on.

2b). Factions tab
Add or remove factions that seem pertinent. I tend to think lizard men will dwell mostly around creatures, so I added Lizard Man Warrior into the Creature Faction, removing him from VeyondCaveBandits.

2c). Inventory tab
Lizard men also don't go around wearing silly town clothes, in fact, the Veyond bandits aren't wearing anything much at all. I gave my lizard a Leather Shield, a Club, and left the two Leveled List selections alone. Gave the guy Leather Greaves though, otherwise he'd be walking around in loincloths, which is even sillier-looking than town clothes. Up to you, of course.

3). Click OK, saving as a New Form.

4a). Main Toolbar > Character > Faction
The Lizard Man deserves his own faction, and for dialog purposes, it's easiest just to make a new faction, just for the lizards. Right-click > New into the Factions window.

4b). Give the faction a name. I am calling it aaaLizardmen. Yeah, real original.

4c). Name the faction (in the top-center Name slot) and toggle "Hidden from PC" and "Evil" on.

4d). In the Interfaction Relations window, right-click > New and make this faction friendly, or hostile, or somewhere in between, to whatever other factions are in the game. Since my lizard men will primarily be put into Creature dungeons, I selected this, then put 70 into the Disposition Modifier slot. With 70, there is a chance there'll be occasional disagreements between the lizards and (let's say) some goblin or rat. They aren't totally rational beings.

4e). Keep the Faction window open.

5a)
. Reopen the Lizard Man's NPC panel, click the Factions tab, and drag the faction just made into the Lizard Man's Factions window. Click OK.

5b). Close the Factions window.

Main toolbar > Dialog button
(this is the button which has a quote bubble for an icon).
Lizard Men are supposed to be primitives. They live in their own society, away from the colloquial civilization of Cyrodiil. They are basically like slightly-more-intelligent animals, since they have their own language, and can wield weapons. This being said, it'd be rather silly if they go around saying "How does the day greet you friend?" talking like any other NPC, if they are supposed to be monsters. laugh.gif

6a). Once the Dialog panel opens up (and it can take a few seconds) the Filter scroll-bar should automatically be on the lizard's ID IF aaa is at the front of the ID's name. If this ID is not showing in the filter, go ahead and find it.

6b). Click on the Conversation tab. This tab controls all the silly conversations NPCs normally say. In the center-left Editor ID (this is the tall window) there's a long list of topics. We're only going to focus on Hellos.

6c). Left-click on Hello. Scroll down to GenericArg. The first Argonian greeting is "Blessed we are." In the Conditions window, notice that there are two conditions: only Argonians are going to be able to say this.

6d). Add a third condition, which is GetInFaction aaaLizardman != 1.00

6e). Copy this Condition, then Paste it into all the other GenericArg Topics below.

6f). Scroll down to the Generic topics which do NOT include the Player in the NPC column. The first generic topic which qualifies is "Good Morning."

6g). Paste the same condition into Good Morning's Conditions window.

Pay attention to the variety of conditions which appear as you scroll downward. "You're making me nervous, sneaking around like that" is never said by any NPC I've ever heard. The aaaLizardMan condition won't need to be pasted into this one.

Also, any racial Hellos can get skipped. The game recognizes lizard men as Argonians, but not as Imperials, Orcs, High Elves, etc.

Any Generic Hellos which feature low Disposition ratings can also get skipped. Anything below 20.

6h). Click on the Combat tab, and click Attack in the Editor ID window.

Some of these Attacks can be kept. Anything not in plain English, for instance, such as "Huuagh!" or "Arrgh!" could potentially be said by a primitive beast. Anything English though, can get removed from lizard men dialog by pasting the same condition which was pasted into the Conversation tab topics.

Again, a lot of these Generics can be skipped. The lizard man character is not an elf for instance, so it's pointless to paste the GetInFaction aaaLizardman != 1 condition in.

6h). Detection tab
Every single selection in this tab will need to have that same condition pasted in. Good news is though, the job is finally done.

6i). Click OK, closing the Dialog panel, click OK on the NPC panel, and save.


Time to add these lizards into the game. If put into Leveled Lists, they will show up randomly

7a). OBJECT window > Actors > Leveled Creature
Find any list the lizard can possibly get added to. Since these lizards are friendly to goblins and monsters in my game, I started with LL0Goblin100. Double left-clicked on this selection.

As can be seen, there are three possible goblin-types which can appear in this list, all of them Level 1. Any instance of LL0Goblin100 (in a goblin lair or outdoors) will cause one of these three types to show up 100%

7b). Right-click > New into the window, and find the lizard man, or a lizard man. In my game so far, I've got aaaLizardmanWarrior and aaaLizardmanSwimmer (the underwater / swamp version). Swimmers don't carry weapons or shields, but are good with Hand-to-Hand. wink.gif Now, there is a chance one of lizards can show up, along with any one of those three goblins. Basically, there is a 25% chance the lizard will appear from that LL0Goblin100 list.

7c). The Level slot can be changed if desired. For instance, if the lizard man is not to appear until the PC is Level 6, this can be changed from 1 to 6.

7d). The Count slot can also be changed. By default, one lizard man (or one of those goblins) will appear from that list. If the slot is changed to two, now two will appear instead of one.

If more than one get added into Leveled Lists, chances are the Dialog window will need to get opened again. Go back into the Conversation tab, and paste the GetInFaction aaaLizardmanFaction !=1 condition into any conversation topic which goes beyond the Hellos. In other words, the lizards won't say any Hellos, but if there are more than one of these in the same cell, there's a chance they can still meet & greet and fall into a silly NPC conversation.

Same condition can be pasted into Goodbyes as well.

7e). Click OK. Save.

7f). Continue to scroll down the entire list of enemies, adding the lizard into whichever lists seem appropriate. Since Argonians can stay underwater indefinitely, I put the swimmers into some LL0WaterShallow and LL0WaterDeep lists, so they'll occasionally replace mudcrabs and slaughterfish respectively.

This post has been edited by Renee: Dec 1 2019, 09:58 AM


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Lopov
post Oct 25 2018, 11:25 PM
Post #32


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From: Slovenia



Nice! goodjob.gif I'll be using this mod when I come back to Oblivion.

QUOTE
but also in underwater outdoor locations.


So it's possible to encounter them in Lake Rumare too?


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Renee
post Oct 26 2018, 12:04 AM
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QUOTE(Lopov @ Oct 25 2018, 06:25 PM) *

So it's possible to encounter them in Lake Rumare too?

If there are generic slaughterfish which swim in there, yes. I know that the infamous slaughterfish from the Weye quest are quest-specific though, so these lizardmen will not replace those. But yes, I did set it up so that "swimmer" versions show up in either shallow water areas (replacing mudcrabs occasionally) or in deep water areas (replacing slaughterfish occasionally).

The really COOL thing is, in theory, the lizards should be able to detect our characters from underwater, meaning they'll be able to emerge from the deep! ... Theory though for now. Has not been seen yet.

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 26 2018, 12:04 AM


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post Oct 28 2018, 02:08 AM
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Making an NPC Vendor / Repairist. Game: TES IV: Oblivion

I've got a recurring problem in one of my games, which is a lot of merchants tend to lock their doors at night, and then sometimes never reopen them. And if I use the Unlock console command, what I usually find inside is an empty shop, with no shopkeeper(s). This problem has something to do with Open Cities I think. I don't know. And I do not have much desire to delve into the Open / Better Cities conglomeration of mods. Instead, I'm going to make my own merchants. Surprisingly, making a merchant in Oblivion is much easier than it is in later games!

In Bruma's Nord Winds shop (in Renee Gade III's gameworld only), Skjorta shows up for work, but Ofland never does anymore. Perhaps he got pwned. Or perhaps he got sick of being in Bruma. Now he's in Skyrim. I don't know. Since Renee Gade III got kicked out of the Fighters Guild, and since the smith who runs Hammer and Axe also seems to have joined Olfland, nobody can repair RG3's gear in this town.

I know I can just use console commands to find these guys and bring them back, but screw it. My PC game needs new faces. I decided to make a young NPC named Olfland Junior, who takes over his father's shop.


1). OBJECT WINDOW > Actor > NPC
Find a named NPC who is also a merchant. Do all the usual: change ID and Name, bla bla.

2). Class can be MerchTrader, or change it to MerchSmith.

Note: Do NOT toggle Auto Calc Stats or PC Level Mult on. Toggling these will cause the NPC's inventory to go "grey", meaning we can't control what they buy or sell.

3). Since I am editing a named NPC, it's important to remove any AI they've got, so they don't wander off to Skingrad or wherever. Also, put the NPC into any Factions which are appropriate to where they live.

4). Click OK, closing the NPC's panel. Save as a New Form.

5). Reopen the NPC and click on the AI button.

I am going to make this NPC very "light" on AI. Olfland Junior will basically stand in Nord Winds by its forge 24/7. indifferent.gif He won't go anywhere, he won't even eat or sleep. But one thing he will do is BE there in Nord Winds, so my character and her friends have somebody to buy, sell, and repair stuff from.

6). Right-click > New into the Editor ID window. Give the AI Package an ID, and put Package Type on Wander.

7). Offers Services should be toggled on. VERY important, and easy to overlook this! Click OK.

8). All the various Buys/Sells toggles can also be turned on or off: Weapons, Armor, Books, etc.

9). Change Barter Gold to whatever you'd like. Oldland Junior is in charge of 1000 gold. Quite a responsibility for his 19 year-old self.

10). If the NPC is to Recharge and/or Repair, toggle these on.

11). Click the Save button.

12a). CELL + RENDER windows
Put the NPC in to the cell where he or she will do business. Olfland Junior goes into Nord Winds, by its forge area.

The job is basically done, assuming you just want the NPC to buy random stuff. That is what the "Offers Services" toggle does: it makes them buy random things. If more specific things are to be sold however, continue to the next step.

13). Move into an area of the cell which is not going to be inhabited by anybody. So...out in the void somewhere. We're going to put a vendor chest out into this void, where nobody can steal stuff from it. Bethesda tends to put vendor chests beneath the shop itself.

14). OBJECT window > WorldObjects > Container
Left-click into the Editor ID window (so you've highlighted one of the containers) and type VEN. This should automatically send you down to the VendorChest area, starting with VendorCFightingChance. Any of these chests can simply be edited, for quickest results.

15). Drag the chest into the Render window, out into the void. Left-click on the chest (so the Reference panel opens). Click on the Ownership tab, and find the NPC vendor in the NPC scroll-bar.

16). Put a Reference ID into the appropriate slot, and toggle Persistent Reference on. Click OK.

17). Reopen the chest, either from the Object window or Render window. Drag salable items from the Object window into this container's main window. Bethesda tends to use their hidden vendor chests to sell unique objects. If you choose to do the same, make sure Respawn stays toggled OFF. Click OK.

Conversely, if the merchant is to sell random things as well as buy them, toggle Respawn on, and drag some Leveled List stuff from the Object > Items window. Specific items (not from lists) can also be dragged over.

18). Find the vendor in the Reference window, and double-left click on him or her. Click on the Merchant Container tab.

19). Use the Cell scroll down to find the cell the vendor chest is in. Then use the Reference scroll-down to find the vendor's unique chest.

20). Click okay, and save. Done and done. Oops, I forgot to make sure the shop's door unlocks and locks.

21). Edit a key, and give it a new ID, save, bla bla.

22). Give the NPC this key. Now go back into the NPC's AI button and find the package which is on while they are offering services. Let's say the shop is to open at 8 am, and stays open for 12 hours. Toggle...

At Package Start: Unlock Doors on.
At Location: Unlock Doors on.
At Package End, Lock Doors can be toggled on.

23). Find the shop's main door, and double left-click on it. Don't go outside though, stay inside and open this door's information. Use the Lock tab to assign the key just made to this door.

24). Click on the door's Ownership tab. If this door is part of an existing building it may be owned either by a single NPC, or a Faction. If it's owned by a single NPC who is no longer around, easy. Just make the door owned by the new person. If it's owned by some faction, the NPC can simply be included into this faction.


click OK, click Save, click OK, and save. NOW we're done.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 19 2021, 03:38 PM


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post Oct 29 2018, 12:17 AM
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SEQ Files, Game: TES V: Skyrim

Requires the TESVEdit program which can be downloaded here.

This one is not about modding per se, it is about an important step one must take for quest-making, though. SEQ stands for "Startgame Enabled Quest." SEQ Files must be updated every time a new quest gets made or (sometimes) updated for a particular .esp in the Skyrim Creation Kit. Otherwise, the game may not even recognize that a new quest is there, in this .esp.


1). In Skyrim's Data folder, look for the SEQ folder. Make sure it is there. If there is no SEQ file, one can be created in the Data folder, literally by right-clicking > New into the Data folder, and then naming the new folder SEQ.

2). Open TESVEdit. Right-click on any of the files which show up, and left-click None.

3). Find the mod you're working with, single left-click the mod's checkbox, and press OK. Do NOT double-click it, or it won't load properly.

4). After the mod loads, right-click onto the mod's name and select the very bottom selection , which is "Other." Left-click on Create SEQ File.

5). Close the TESVEdit program by left-clicking on the red X up in the upper-right corner. A final panel shows up which lists our mod with a check-mark next to it. Click OK.

6). Go into your Skyrim > Data > SEQ folder and see that your mod now has its own SEQ file. Hopefully it does.

If you've already made an SEQ file in the past, hover your mouse-cursor over this file, and make sure that it has today's date on it. This indicates that the file has been updated.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 4 2024, 06:07 PM


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post Nov 11 2018, 04:32 PM
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Making FOMODs through Fallout Mod Manager

This post is going to discuss making FOMODs for the Fallout Mod Manager version which is found here, at THE Nexus. There could be other versions of FOMM which are easier, I don't know. Without the notes below though, I would be lost if I tried to make another FOMOD again. Making FOMODs for Fallout is a hell of a lot more involved and even stressful than making OMODs for Oblivion, I have found so anyway. I have heard others say the same, too.

The following assumes an archive file was downloaded, its author is promising a FOMOD can be made from this archive, and now you're going to make this archive into a FOMOD. Not all mods will need this method, of course; only those which are supposed to have their installation simplified by the FOMOD process. Only those which are more complicated than usual, in other words.

1). Open Fallout Mod Manager

2). On the right side of this program, click Package Manager.

3). Again, on the right side, click Create FOMOD. Wait a moment or two.

4). A new panel *POPs* up with two main windows, which is called FOMod Builder Form. It is easiest to just drag the archive into the Source Files window. We can also click the Add Files button and search for the archive this way.

5). Double-click on the archive (opening it up in the Source Files window).

6). Now, drag any folders, files, and readmes over to the FOMod Files window. rolleyes.gif See? More complicated for some reason. Neither OBMM nor Wrye Bash / Oblivion has me doing things so manually. Anyway...

7). Go back to the archive file. NO, not the archive in the FOMod program, go back to the archive in your Downloads folder, or wherever your original archive has been saved. Right-click on this file and choose Rename. Now copy / paste this name into the long, rectangular box where it says FOMOD File Name (without extensions).

Try clicking OK in the lower right corner, and be patient while the program does its work. Chances are some errors will show up, but hopefully one of these is not the FOMOD File Name.

8). Now, have a look at the left side of this panel. The 'Sources" button should be greyed-out. Click on the Download Locations button. IF the chosen mod came with pre-made FOMod stuff (like MMM does) simply click the "Included" toggle on. ... Do not mess with Hidden or General, both of these are for more advanced modders.

9). Click on the OK button again. Chances are some errors will be found, and again, allow the program to list them, because some FOMODs make certain changes that others do not.

-- For instance, if "FOMod Info" has an error, it's usually because of empty boxes that haven't been filled in, like "Mod Author" and "Version." Go ahead and fill in this info manually, but some of the stuff can be left blank. In the Groups box, toggle anything in here (such as Textures, Quests, etc.) These are all the things the mod is going to include.

Click OK again. The program will warn that some stuff hasn't been filled in, but we don't always have to do this.

-- If the "Readme" area has an error, this is simply because any Readme file(s) have not been moved over to the FOMOD Files box. rolleyes.gif Even though we're supposed to be able to pick and choose this sort of stuff.

-- If the "Save Locations" area has an error, go ahead and click on this button and choose the Create FOMOD toggle. As can be seen, there is a "Premade FOMOd pack" toggle as well, but I haven't been able to get it to work, even though MMM is supposed to include premade FOMod stuff. rolleyes.gif Be patient!

10). Click OK. If everything goes right, a new panel will *POP* up with two bars, which should be compressing information, turning green as progress commences. In some cases, these two bars won't show up though, because there isn't any stuff to compress. huh.gif

11). Be patient. If everything goes right, the previous FOMOD Builder panel will close (along with the progress panel) and we'll be back on the Package Manager panel, with our new FOMOD available as a one-click .esp or .esm choice. Go ahead and one-click (or double left-click) on it. If this doesn't work, highlight it, then press the Activate button.

12). Every FOMOD does this next part differently. Just go through all the choices that come up, clicking "Next" when you're ready to move to the next option. MMM, for instance, includes a choice of making the Configuration Menu either an in-game deal (similar to Skyrim's MCM Menu) or it uses an older method of ESP choices.

13). Click Finish whenever the choices sequence is done. If the mod is wanting to overwrite anything (MMM asked if I wanted to overwrite a variety of meshes, for instance), the cool thing is Fallout Mod Manager will let us know if we want to do this.

14). Close the Package Manager by clicking the red X in its upper-right corner.

15).
Now we're back on the original FOMM program. Double-check to see that any .esps we chose earlier are clicked on.

16). Close the program, LOOT it, and re-open it to make sure everything is still there

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 22 2022, 06:14 PM


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post Dec 1 2018, 06:40 PM
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`
Making an NPC follower Game: TES V: Skyrim

Firstly this video shows how to make an NPC, it goes through all the different features of the NPC panel, Stats tab, Factions tab, etc. Bethesda also has their own text-based tutorial too.

Second, I use Amazing Follower Tweaks for the quest component of my followers. What I am about to describe below is merely how to make an NPC follower with basic commands available (Follow, Wait, etc.) and AFT can extend these commands and options. I have found that AFT does the job just the way I'd like. AFT also has a feature (a spell, basically) which can automatically make a lot of NPCs into followers. So all the stuff below is just for gamers who want to custom-make an NPC follower from scratch.

Additional NPC Follower Voices is also recommended. Helps them say more things. I have found that not all the voices listed in this mod work, but I have listed the ones that do below.


1). OBJECT window > Actors
Make a New NPC in Object window. Type an ID, a name, and a short name.

2). Make this NPC Unique. This is the most important button for now, on this first page. You might want to make him/her Essential as well, but the Respawn toggle is optional.

I made several generic followers for Sir Vyvoor for instance (a warrior, archer, and spellsword). These followers begin their lives in Windhelm's palace, and in case any one of them gets pwned, another one will eventually respawn in this palace.

Note: sometimes it helps to click OK (closing this new character window) and then reopen it. Otherwise, "Unique" and other selections will keep getting toggled off.

3a). Traits tab: Choose Race, Sex, etc.

3b). Give the NPC a voice in the Voice Type scroll bar. This will make them speak when we tell them to "wait" or "follow", etc. I have found that most voices do not work in the base Creation Kit, even that voice mod linked above. There are two ways to figure out which voices will work, and which do not. The first way is rather blind. Experiment by choosing a voice type, and then going back in-game to see if it works.

The second way to do this is much more specific. In the Object Window, find the Miscellaneous section, then choose FormList. Type "voice" in the Filter slot, and scroll down to VoicesFollowersAll. There are a total of seventeen voices that are guaranteed to work for followers.

MaleEvenTonedAccented
FemaleSultry
MaleDrunk
FemaleDarkElf
MaleDarkEfl
MaleNord
FemaleCommander
MaleBrute
MaleArgonian
MaleKhajiit
FemaleOrc
FemaleCondescending
MaleEvenToned
FemaleEvenToned
MaleYoungEager
FemaleYoungEager

3c). Raise Disposition Base from 35 to anywhere above 50, unless for some reason that follower is supposed to hate our character.


4a). Stats tab: Click PC Level Multiplier if you want somebody who will level with player, or Auto Calc Stats (ACS) for soembody who is outside these bounds. ACS will cause the person's skills to match whatever their Class is. Clicking both of these OFF is the best way to make the most unique person, with skills as high or as low.

4b). Choose their Class. This is a scroll bar at the very bottom.


5a). Factions tab: very important. Right-click on this window and choose New. Filter the word "follower" and choose Current Follower Faction and Potential Follower Factionn

5b).
Current Follower Faction will need to be -1, meaning the NPC is not a follower yet. Change this from 0 by left-clicking under Rank, and pressing F2. Highlight 0 and type in -1.

Tip: when making multiple followers of the same type (soldiers or guards, for instance), it is possible to set a bunch of factions for one NPC, and then copy all these factions for the next one. Just right-click > Copy Stack from the first NPC, and Paste Stack to any others. Done.


6). AI Data tab: Make the NPC Aggressive if we want him / her to fight. Very Aggressive is only recommended for somebody who can possibly be an enemy to citizens. Also, choose Help Allies. We can go back to the Faction tab to see everyone this person has in his / her Faction.

Note: "Help Friends and Allies" may make the NPC jump into too many battles.


7a). Inventory Tab: we can give them a Default Outfit. Click on the Preview > Full button to see this in real-time. Amazing Follower Tweaks has a neat feature which also allows us to select an outfit which the NPC will wear when he/she is relaxing, which is a way to get them out of an armor suit.

7b). To give the NPC a weapon, click in the middle window > New, and then scroll down whatever object(s) you want. IronDagger or whatever.

... also visit the Spells tab, if the NPC is to be a magic-user.


8). Click OK to save the NPC to the Object window. NOW THE NPC IS MADE, however, it is NOT yet a Follower


9a). In the Object window, go to Character > Relationship. Right-click on the window and select New. It helps to create a Relationship ID with a similar name as the NPC ID, just for convenience. We cannot make this ID exactly the same as the NPC's ID though.

9b). Under Parent NPC, find the name of the NPC, and choose this. This does not mean we are the NPC's parent, ha ha. It merely means we are the one who calls the shots for this NPC, when he/she is following.
-- Child NPC: Find "Player" for this.

-- Relationship Level: select "Ally". This is needed to make sure recruiting dialog shows up for the NPC.

-- Association Type can be left to NONE in most cases, unless we want to further define the NPC somehow.


DONE. To double-check all work, go back to the NPC just created, and look under the Relationship tab. It should have a Player reference here. Now, simply place the NPC where he/she is to begin.


Troubleshooting: if there is no dialog option when the NPC is spoken to in-game, make sure Additional Follower Voices is toggled on in your mod manager. Again, not all this mod's voices work! The NPCs will also not actually speak 100% of the time. I have found that sometimes they speak HELLOs, and sometimes Topic dialog added by AFV, but lots of times they won't.


some Amazing Follower Tweak options:

-- To enable outfit management: Once you're back in-game, talk to the NPC, select Tweak Options > Gear > then scroll all the way down. Toggle Enable Outfit Management on (if it's not already on) and then there are some different choices for City Outfit and Home Outfit. "Home Outfit" might just be them not wearing much at all, and I'm sure there's a way to change this. Basically, there are dozens of options AFT offers, too many to list here!

--There are also ways to get ALL followers to do something at once, manually or remotely. To manually do this, talk to the NPC, select Tweak Options > Actions > then scroll down to the ALL Followers section. We can make all of them follow us, wait, sandbox (relax) and so on.

--To command all followers remotely, got into your character's MAGIC menu, select POWERS, then scroll down to Tweak Commands. Hotkey this. When we're back in game mode, that hotkey toggle will work via the Shout button by default. All followers can be told to Wait, Follow, Relax, etc. Neato!

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 21 2023, 03:12 PM


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post Dec 5 2018, 02:59 AM
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Making an NPC Vendor Game: TES V: Skyrim

1a). OBJECT window > WorldObjects > Containers
Left-click into the Editor ID window and type Merch so all the merchant chests show up.

1b). Find a chest that sells things which you'd like the merchant to also sell. Duplicate this chest.

1c). Rename its ID, click OK. And select "no" when the CK asks if you'd like to make this chest into a New Item (since it already is a new item), and confirm this by clicking Yes.

1d): Go into this container's inventory and change anything you'd like. I duplicated VendorMiscChestSmall, which contains several Leveled List items.

Note: Make sure the Respawns toggle stays toggled on, so the merchant will restock their store.

It's a good idea to right-click > New into the Item List window, and add find VendorGold X in the scroll-bar, with the X being "Apothecary", 'Inn", and so on. Since I need a general merchant, I am choosing VendorGoldMisc, and then changing Count to 1. This will give the vendor 750 gold to play around with, though sometimes other mods will cause this amount to vary. Gold can also be added directly into the NPC's inventory window as well, after this NPC is created. Any gold added here will not vary.

1e). If there are any leveled items in the container's inventory which say anything to do with "PerkInvestor X" go ahead and remove these. Since the container was duplicated, sometimes this perk will hitchhike along. Since these perks are already associated with other merchants, we don't want to influence these others with our custom merchant. That can mess up things on their ends.


2a). CELL + RENDER windows
Drag the container into a cell where the vendor will be placed. Put it into the void though (outside of character reach), unless you want there to be a chance that the player will choose to try stealing from this chest. emot-ninja1.gif

Make sure the chest stays onscreen.


3a). OBJECT window > Character > Faction
Right-click > New into the window. Give the faction an ID and Name.

3b). Make sure the General tab is selected. If the vendor will be running his/her own shop or stall, click the Can Be Owner toggle on. This is not important for NPCs added into cells which are already inhabited by other vendors though. For instance, I wanted to add a general vendor into Dawnstar's Mortar & Pestle. Frida (the default merchant there) will gladly buy & sell apothecary stuff like potions and ingredients, but I want somebody else in there who will buy general stuff. This second NPC won't need "Can Be Owner" toggled on.

3c). Vendor tab: toggle Vendor on. And click on the Select Reference in Window button. Double left-click on the merchant's chest.

3d). Put some numbers into the Start Hour and End Hour slots. These numbers correspond to hours in the game, however they must be added in military time .... i.e., 18 instead of 6 pm. If times are not added into these slots, the NPC will not buy or sell at all.

3e). Change the Vendor Buy/Sell List to whatever is appropriate. Since my merchant will buy and sell general stuff, I changed this to VendorItemsMisc.

Note: when choosing VendorItemsMisc, toggle Not Sell/Buy on. This keeps them from buying & selling stuff which should not get bought or sold (such as keys).

3f). Click the Location button and choose Near Self. (Note, we can also choose Near Reference, and I will explain why this can sometimes be chosen later). Click Ok.

3g). Click OK, closing the Faction panel, and save all work.


4a). OBJECT window > Actors > Actor.
Right-click > New into the Object window. Do all the usual: ID, Name, and Short Name.

4b). Toggle Unique on, and click OK (this closes the NPC's panel). Now reopen the NPC's panel.


5a). Traits tab: choose a Race. And choose a Voice Type in the scroll-bar.

Note that not all of these voices will work in-game, and if they don't work, sometimes this can screw up the onscreen dialog as well. It helps to make sure the NPC's voice will work. So since I am making my NPC a vendor, here is what to do.

5b). Object window > Miscellaneous > FormList
Type "voice" into the Filter, so that the window focuses on Voice Types. There are dozens of results in the window now.

5c).
Scroll down to VoicesVendor and double left-click on this.

The FormList panel pops up, and this shows all the voice types which are "safe" to use. There are quite a few. Since my NPC will be an ordinary Nord, I can see that MaleNord is indeed safe to use. Why is this important? It's important because choosing the right voice will guarantee the NPC will say all the things vendors usually say: "You lookin' to buy something?" "Trinkets, odds and ends, that sort of thing," and so on. If they haven't got the correct voice type, they won't say anything. And while to some of you this might be a small blessing, I'm not sure if they'll also be able to participate in buying / selling stuff. sad.gif

5d). Click OK, save. And reopen NPC's info again.


6a). Stats tab: Choose PC Level Mult to make the NPC level with the character. Choose Auto-calc stats (and then give the NPC a level in the Level slot) to make an NPC who will pertain to a specific level. Or choose neither of these, and customize the NPC in the Skills window.

6b). In the Class scroll-down, VendorPawnbroker is a good class for a general merchant. There are also classes geared toward Smiths, Food, Alchemy, and so on.

Notice that when each class is chosen, this will change some of the numbers up above in the Skills window, if Auto-calc Stats is toggled on.

6c). Go through the rest of the tabs as you see fit, giving the NPC some AI, some clothes, some personal objects, and so on. Note that items in the Inventory tab's main window COULD get sold, if the NPC deals in this type of vendoring. For instance, if the NPC is to sell potions, any potions in his/her inventory can get sold as one-time items. This is useful for adding rare, possibly expensive items for sale.

6d).. Click OK and save.


7a). Reopen the NPC vendor's info and select his/her Factions tab. Drag the new faction from the Object window into the NPC's Factions and Ranks window. Right-click > New into this window too, and find the JobMerchantsFaction. These two factions alone are all that's needed for a basic merchant. Our custom faction makes sure the merchant will sell & buy from and to the right container, and the JobMerchantFaction makes sure the NPC will say all the things vendors usually say.

Note: Blacksmiths should not be added into the BlacksmithFaction. JobMerchantFaction will handle all their merchant duties.

It's also a good idea to add one of the crime factions, such as CrimeFactionPale, which is what my vendor will have. This will cause the NPC to freak out and give us a bounty if we get caught stealing something, or attack the NPC. Below the Factions and Ranks window, change the Assigned Crime Faction scroll-bar from None to whichever crime faction was added. Now.... depending how much Confidence this NPC has in her or his AI Data tab, this NPC will either run away if Cowardly is chosen, attack our character if Foolhardy is chosen, or somewhere in between.

A town faction (such as TownDawnstarFaction) might also be a good thing to add. This helps the vendor become part of the town itself, meaning they'll get involved in various things those townies say.

7b). Make sure any factions which are supposed to be "on" have a 0 next to them, under the Rank column. If there's a -1 in this column, change this by highlighting the faction, pressing F2, and changing this manually to 0.

7c).. Click OK, closing the NPC's info, and save.


8). Place the NPC into the cell where the container was added.

The work is basically done. Below are some tips which will make the vendor sell things which are right there in the store. As we buy these items, they will disappear from the store! They will also respawn when the store or stall's cell respawns. Neato.


9a). Grab 'n' drag any items from the Object window, into the Render window, and place these items onto any nearby surfaces. Double left-click on these items in the Render window, and select one of the Ownership tab's scroll-bars, selecting either the NPC vendor, or his/her faction.

9b). Double left-click on any object near where the NPC which cannot be sold, such as a counter or a table, where the vendor will do all vendoring.

9c). Give this object a Reference ID. Click OK.


10a). Double left-click an unsalable object (such as a counter or stall where the NPC will be vendoring) and give this object a Reference ID. Now, make sure this object (counter, stall, whatever) stays onscreen.

10b). Reopen the NPC's custom faction in the Object window, select the Vendor tab, and press the Location button. "Near Self" is toggled already, from step #3f. Change this to Near Reference.

10c). Press the Select Reference button and double left-click on the counter, stall, whatever.

10d). Put a number into the Radius slot, such as 256 or 512. Now, any referenced items placed nearby can be bought in real-time once we're back in-game, and if we can see these items onscreen, they will disappear when bought. smile.gif

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 10 2019, 08:08 PM


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post Dec 15 2018, 02:39 AM
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Making a Book bump a quest stage Game: TESV: Skyrim

This post assumes you've already written a quest (even if it's a partial quest) or have an idea for one. And then a book gets used to bump one of this quest's stages, objectives, and so on.

1). Start up the Creation Kit. Edit or Duplicate a book or a note. Give it an ID name and an actual Name. Change its Book Text.

2). Close and save the book as a New Form if you edited it, or don't do so if you duplicated it.

3). Reopen the book/note. In the Scripts section, click the Add button.

4). Type OnRead into the Filter. Two pre-made scripts will show up under [New Script]. Select the second one, which is DefaultOnReadSetQuestStageNotAlias.

Again, make sure you choose the NOTAlias version. For some reason, the first script will not work.

5). Click OK.

This attaches a generic script to the book which has been pre-written by Bethesda, which saves us a lot of time because we don't have to type the entire script!

6).
Go ahead and right-click onto the script, and select Edit Source to have a look at all the text we didn't have to write. How lovely. Thanks Beth, for finally making our scripting endeavors easier.

Close that script when you're done.

7). Click on the Properties button. A panel pops up which should have a couple items in its window: myQuest and myStage. By now, you're going to need to have a partially-written quest already extant.

8). Highlight myQuest. Press the Edit Value button. Look for the name of your quest in the scroll-bar, and select this.

9). Now highlight myStage, press the Edit Value button, and choose the stage which you'd like the quest to bump to, once the book is read.

10).
Click OK, closing the script, and click OK again, closing the book. Or Note. Save, and that should be all.

Note that this can be used for OnAdd (actually, DefaultSetStageOnPlayerAcquireItem works better), OnActivate, and other typical functions found in earlier game scxripts.

This post has been edited by Renee: Dec 11 2022, 09:10 PM


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post Dec 17 2018, 12:02 AM
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Skyrim Quest Tutorial (WORK IN PROGRESS, do not follow this one!)

So this one is sort of like an introduction to Skyrim quest-making. It rambles a lot, it's not very focused, but itintroduces a bunch of basic concepts, and shows how to use a lot features in the Quest windows. Because making quests in the Creation Kit is waaaaaaaaaay different sometimes than making quests in earlier programs. I wrote all this last year, so for me this is a refresher course, because I don't play Skyrim year-round, so I forgot a lot of stuff.

At the moment, I'm wanting to make a simple quest which gives Sir Vyvoor a horse, which will take place in Whiterun. I know he can just pay 1000 gold and buy one, but wouldn't it make sense that the Dragonborn, which is what Vyvoor is, should just get a free horse? viking.gif I mean, c'mon.

Quests can vary wildly of course. In this one, I already know I'm going to need a note, a horse, and a new NPC. The note is what begins the quest, and the NPC is going to be who my character speaks to. Pretend I am making a note and an NPC therefore. I won't write it all up. Basic notes are pretty much the same as from previous games, they can be edited from premade examples, then placed somewhere in the world. NPCs however, are best started from scratch, especially if this NPC is going to participate only with our quests.

How to make a note and an NPC are described in posts above this one, and the horse will get discussed at the end of this post.


1a). Open Creation Kit. File > Data > open the mod you want, if you're already working on something. If you're not, just double right-click on Skyrim.esm.


2). Object window > Character > Quests. All those yellow icons in the right window pane are quests. Right-click > New into this window.

3). Give the quest a unique ID name, and Quest name. Priority is good at 60 for this tutorial, though it will vary in the future, for some other quests you might write.

4).
Next to ID is a function called 'Type,' which is a scroll-bar. In most cases, we can just choose Side Quests or Miscellaneous. Miscellaneous quests will go into that bottom section of the Current Quests window once we're back in-game, and this is the place for lots of easy things to do, like Fetch or Kills. For this one I am choosing Side Quest.

*Note: to make an NPC who one-lines us with forcegreets (and that is all, this NPC cannot be spoken to more thoroughly) leave the scroll-bar at None. ...

5). Object Window Filter: leave this slot blank.

6). Event is another scroll down. We can leave this on NONE for now.

7). Toggle Start Game Enabled on if it's not already on, leave other toggles blank. In some cases, toggle Run Once on too, if it's not already toggled.

8
). In the Quest Dialog Conditions window, select New, then GetIsPlayableRace == 1.00

9). Close the Quest page by clicking OK. This will allow more tabs on the very top of the page. Once it is closed, SAVE all work. Now re-open the quest.


10a). QUEST STAGES tab
In the Index window, make stages 0, 5, 10, and 20, 50, and 100. Always leave some space between these numbers (don't put 1, 2, 3, 4.... etc.). This way, if you need to add more stages later on, you can put them easily between the ones you've already go.

Stage 0: Left-click on 0. Right-click into the top Log Entry window and do nothing else. It'll say EMPTY. Leave it just like that. Toggle Start-Up Stage on.

Stage 5: Enter an initial Log Entry for 5 (or whatever you put first) by right-clicking > New into the Log Entry window, and then type the first update into the Log Entry box below. Unlike the GECK, whatever we write into the Log Entry box is going to show in-game. In the Papyrus Fragment box, type SetObjectiveDisplayed (5)

The way this quest is going to work, the player finds the note written at the start of this quest. This note is what bumps the quest from 0 to 5. The lesson on how to do this is in the post above this one, so go follow those instructions (if this hasn't been done yet), then come back here.

So two stages are written so far. I will come back to this tab later.

DIALOGUE VIEWS and PLAYER DIALOGUE tabs
In that note, I wrote some dialog explaining who left the note, and to come see her. Again, this is Stage 5. When the player finds whoever left that note, my character will have a conversation with her.

Unlike the Construction Set and older versions of the GECK, in the Creation Kit there are two ways to structure dialog: the Dialog Views tab and Player Dialogue tab. Dialog Views introduces a very visual layout to see dialog (and how it can branch in different directions) as we're adding it. The Player Dialogue tab is a more old-fashioned way to lay out text, though it's also not laid out the same way as in the CS and GECK. Either tab can be used, whichever the modder feels more comfortable with.

11a) Let's start with the more-visual Dialogue Views windows. In the vertical left Editor ID window, right-click > New, then type aaaQuestNameDialogIntro. "Quest Name" can be whatever ID name was chosen in the Quest Data tab. Click OK. Now highlight that text in the Editor ID window, by left-clicking on it once.

11b). In the larger, blank window, right-click > Create Branch. Give the ID for this Branch name like aaaQuestNameStartBranch. Click OK. The CK will automatically add the word "Topic" after this.

11c). Click OK again. A yellow box should *POP* up in the larger window. If it doesn't, just click on another tab (such as Quest Data), return to the Dialog Views tab, highlight the topic name (aaaQuestNameDialogIntro) in the Editor ID window, and the yellow box should show up in the larger right window.

Note: Though I am teaching how to do this in the more-visual Dialogue Views page, keep an eye on what's happening in Player Dialogue as well, just in case you're more comfortable using this page. I actually prefer the older way of doing this, but for this very reason that's why I'm reminding myself how D. Views works.

11d). Double-click in the grey area inside the yellow box. Wait for it. Now a Topic page should open.

11e). The Subtype scroll-bar should stay as Custom, though in the future it is also make this dialog topic into a ForceGreet or Rumor.

11f). "Do all before repeating" is a toggle which works similar to the "Random" toggle in the CS; i.e. the NPC who says this stuff will say something different every time we click on their topic. Since I am writing a one-time quest which gives my toon a horse, I'm not toggling this on.

11g).
Topic Text is similar to what is in the CS as well. This is what we can click on as we speak to this NPC in-game. Priority can be left at 50.

11h). Double-click in the large Info window so that a New Response page pops up. The Response Text is what the NPC will say when we click on that topic.

11ii). Script Notes is sort of like a "notes to self" sort of area, which has nothing to do with in-game stuff at all.

11j). Idle Animations has a scroll bar for Speaker and Listener. And this will cause the NPC or PC to do certain things (such as gesture, clap hands, etc.) when dialog is being spoken. In most cases, both of these can be left at NONE.

11k). Give the NPC an Emotion and Emotion value, and click OK. A larger Topic Info page now pops onscreen.

11l). Prompt was first used in the GECK, and now we've got it in the CK. It is an overwrite feature, which will replace the Topic Text above it. Prompt will railroad the player into a specific discussion, so if you choose to add a Prompt into dialog, you won't see Rumors or any other choices at this moment, once you're back in-game.

Again, those who are familiar with Prompts in the GECK already know how it's possible to use the same topic over and over again, merely writing up new prompts for the player to click on, instead.

11m). We can see the Response Text we added a moment ago, and we can add more Responses by right-clicking > New into this long horizontal window.

11n). Conditions is similar to the CS. GetIsId is the default condition for this small page, which makes things SO convenient, since GetIsID is the most common condition. We can also put GetStage and other typical functions for this area.

Now comes the weird part. To make the dialog show up onscreen once we're back in-game, a Sound File must be made for the dialog which was just typed, otherwise the text will remain onscreen for literally a millisecond. Now, this sound file does NOT need to have any actual sound, that's the good thing. smile.gif

11o). Double left-click on the first Response Text which was just typed up, so the Edit Response panel pops up. There should be a Voice Type listed in the bottom window which corresponds to the NPC who says this dialog (MaleNord, for instance). If there isn't anything in this window, you'll need to go back to the NPC and make sure an appropriate Voice Type is chosen.

11p). Highlight this Voice Type. Now click the Record button. If you have a microphone, you can record your voice if you feel confident, but this is not 100% necessary. It is possible to just record silence. But there MUST be an appropriate amount of silence (while reading the text) so that the actor's mouth moves for an appropriate amount of time. In other words, if there's no actual dialog, press the Record button, then count to ten or whatever. Click Done.

11q). Click again on the VoiceType (MaleNord or whatever), and click the Save button. If a warning shows up saying this file already exists, it's because there is already a MaleNord (or whatever) file saved. Ignore the warning.

11r). If some actual voice was recorded, highlight the same Voice Type text, and click the Preview button to have a listen how awesome, or silly that voice sounds.

11s). Toggle the From WAV ON, and press Generate Lip File. Click OK.

11t). Toggle Has LIP File off, but Force Subtitle on.

11u) In Scripts End box, type GetOwningQuest().SetStage (10)


12). Click OK, OK, and OK, closing out all the quest windows, just to make sure everything is saved. SAVE. Reopen the Quest.


13a). DIALOG VIEWS tab:
Left-click the top of the EditorID name` (the top-yellow part of the box), and right-click > Add Topic. When the Topic page opens, the ID can be QuestNameYes if we want to make a Yes/No scenario. Add some text in the Topic Text slot, too. Since my character just got info about attaining a free horse, this'll say "You are giving me a horse?"

Tip: Once you're back in the Dialog Views tab, it's possible to click on the 'Show all text' toggle at the bottom of the panel if you want to see all the text typed up so far.

13b). Click OK. Again, the New Response panel *POPS* up. Write some Response Text that the NPC will say. "Oh yes, you've done many great things for us..." etc.

Follow all the steps from 13j to 14 for all dialog, to make sure recordings are made, even if they're silent.

13c): Back on the Dialogue Views tab, left-click into the first batch of NPC text. The cursor changes to a hand. Now, drag this hand over to the topic which follows the initial one. We can see how the conversation will flow now, right?

Have a look now in the Player Dialogue tab, at the initial topic. Note that in the Link To window (which is center-right) this initial topic ("Are you the one who left that note?") has been linked up to the topic which follows ("You are giving me a free horse?"). If you're not using the Dialogue Views tab, topics can still be linked manually by right-clicking into the Link To window, clicking Add Link and find the topic which follows. By doing all this, we do not need to make the quest SetStage as often as was needed in the CS and earlier GECK versions.

Click OK and OK, closing quest windows. Save.


Time to go backwards for a moment. I'm going to add an onscreen update into the game now, so that when the player finds the note, a message will flash onscreen.

14a). Quest Objectives tab
The Quest Objectives page works in a similar manner to the GECK. Right-click > New into the top horizontal window.

14b). Type the number 5 into the Index slot. And type some text into the Display Text slot. Whatever gets typed in there will be the onscreen update (and will show in the quest journal as well).

14c). Go into the Quest Stages tab, and select Stage 5. In the Papyrus Fragments box, type SetObjectiveDisplayed (5).

14d). Since dialog already bumps the quest up to Stage 10, let's go ahead and take care of 10. Right-click > New into the top Log Entry window, and type an update into the Log Entry box below it.

14e). In the Papyrus Fragments box, type SetObjectiveCompleted (5), and then SetObjectiveDisplayed (10). Go back into the Quest Objectives tab and type make and objective for Stage 10.

Click OK, and save. Reopen the quest window, with the Quest Stages tab showing.

Now comes the part that's really different. Once the player speaks to the quest-giver, she's going to ask for "tacking fees" of 150 gold before the horse becomes ours. So this horse is not really free. Plot-twist. In the CS and older GECK, all that was needed was to use a GetGold condition so the game could see if we've got enough to afford these fees. But getting the game to see our gold is now more complicated than it was.

14f). Select Stage 100, which is the final stage, so toggle Shut Down Stage on. Click the Properities button (this is right under the Papyrus Fragment scripting area).

14g). Click the Add Property button. For the Type scroll-bar, look for MiscObject. In the Name slot, type Gold001. Click OK, and click OK.

14h) In the Papyrus Fragment box, type Game.GetPlayer().RemoveItem (Gold001, X) , with "X" being whatever you think is fair. Also type...

SetObjectiveCompleted (10)
stop()


..........That is it! "Stop()" is what shuts down the quest. Now, to make sure the horse becomes ours.

15. OBJECT window > Actors
Type EncHorse into the Filter, and duplicate one of the horses which show up. Note that there are saddled and unsaddled versions to choose from.

Put into world somewhere (near a stable, usually). Give horse Ref ID. Click the horse's Ownership tab and make this horse belong to the NPC added earlier, the one who's giving all the dialog so far. Make sure the horse stays onscreen.

16a). QUEST window > Quest Aliases tab
Time to add some aliases to this quest. This is one of the huge differences between the Construction set and Creation Kit: we can create references to objects much more specifically in this latter program. References are going to be made for the player, gold, the horse, and the quest-giver. These references will make more sense later.

16b. Right-click > New Reference Alias. After the Reference Alias panel pops up, fill in the Alias Name slot with the word "Player" (without quotes, of course). Toggle Unique Actor on, and find Player in the scroll-bar. Click OK.

Note: Chances are the OK button for the Reference Alias panel will be off-screen. If so, single left-click on the Alias Name (so a cursor appears next to the name you typed earlier, which should be Player) and press Enter. This should close the panel, saving everything just added to it.

16c). Do all the steps in 16b, but this time type Gold into the Alias Name. Toggle Create Reference to Object on, find Gold001 in the scroll-bar, and leave everything else as-is. The entire string of information should be "Create Reference to Object: Gold001, Level: Easy, Create: at Player. Close the panel, again using the method from 16a, if the OK button is not onscreen.

16d. Follow all steps from 16b again, this time type Horse into the Alias Name slot. Toggle the Specific Reference on, click the Select Forced Reference button, then click the Select Reference in Reference Window button. Double left-click on the horse, and click OK. Close the panel.

16e). Last one. Follow 16b again, but this time, type QuestGiver into the Alias Name slot. Toggle the Unique Actor on, and find the NPC who speaks to us during the quest. Close the panel. Click OK. save.


17a). DIALOGUE VIEWS or PLAYER DIALOGUE tab
Whichever is preferred. Go back to the last bit of dialog added, which is "You are giving me a free horse?" Add a GetIsId and GetStage into the Conditions window. The stage so far is 10.

17b). In the Scripts: End box, type GetOwningQuest().SetStage (20). Click Ok, but leave the Quest window open.

17c). From here on, I'm going to be working in the Player Dialogue tab. Right-click > New into the gigantic window on the right, and type some text. "Well it's not exactly free. We'll need to charge some tacking fees..."

17d). Now, notice in the Topic Text slot, the same text from the first entry ("You are giving me a free horse?") is still in this slot. Do not change this. Instead, type something into the Prompt slot. "You want to charge me for this horse? How much, then?" All of this is similar to the way the GECK from earlier Fallout games works. We can keep the same topic going, substituting different prompts for the player to click on as the conversation commences.

17d). Follow steps 11j through 11t to add voice or silence, animations, facial emotions, etc.

17e).. GetIsID and GetStage can be pasted from the previous bit of dialog, but change the GetStage to 20. Now, if the player backs out of conversation early, he or she won't have to go through all that text about a horse being offered again.

17f). TBC

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 4 2024, 06:13 PM


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