Renee's Modding Thread Options

[Renee]

Mod-making thread basically, which focuses heavily on quest-making. The first two tutorials (How to make a fetch quest and how to make a kill quest) are very hand-holdy. They are designed for those who are just starting to learn the art of quest-making. Other tutorials get more advanced, as my wacky ideas have pushed their boundaries.

Just click on any of the links below.

Tip: For Oblivion, Always use Ely's Silent Voice when making silent-text dialog. Without this utility, dialog will stay on-screen for just a fraction of a second. Of course, if recording actual voice, this utility is not needed.

For Skyrim, I use Silent Voice Generator, though somebody who records actual voice won't need this utility.

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BEGINNER SECTION

1). How to make a Fetch Quest. Game: TES IV: Oblivion. *Hand-Holdy*

2). How to make a Kill Quest, Map Markers, and X Markers. Game: TES IV: Oblivion. *Hand-Holdy*

3). Making an NPC Vendor / Repair-person. Game: Fallout 3. *Hand-Holdy*

4). Making our character's birthday show in game. Game: TES IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, TES V: Skyrim. *Hand-Holdy*

5). Making a book bump a Quest Stage

6). Light Switches and Triggers (Oblivion, Fallout 3/NV, or Skyrim)

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TES II: DAGGERFALL

1). Daggerfall Tutorial (by Boxx Mann)

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TES III: MORROWIND

1). Getting an Xbox controller to work on PC. Game: TES III: Morrowind *Adept*

2). More Dynamic NPCs. Game: TES III: Morrowind. *Easy*

3). (Re)installing Morrowind from Scratch *Advanced*

4). Breton Magic Resistance Tweak, Game: TES III: Morrowind *Easy* (Cheaty!)

5). How to fix "failed snowflake: Meshes\BM_Snow.01.nif" error *Adept*

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TES IV: OBLIVION

1). Construction Set Extended Primer, and some advice (by Turija). Game: TES IV: Oblivion

2). Repairing Bad Hair! Game: TES IV: Oblivion. *Easy*

3). Making a weather-changing item. Game: TES IV: Oblivion. *Easy*

4). Making a home rentable, or salable. Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Adept*

5). Repeatable Bounty Quests. Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Adept*

6). Adding additional Bounty Quest Locations *Adept*

7). Lizard Men! Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Easy*

8). Making an NPC Vendor Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Easy*

9). Repeatable Bounty Quests (Innkeeper involvement) Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Advanced*

10). Horse Rentals. Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Adept*

11). Getting the Take All button to work (by Lena Wolf). Game: TES IV: Oblivion

12). Skooma Dealer Game: TES IV: Oblivion *Adept*

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Fallout 3 and New Vegas

1). How to make a Fetch Quest (with multiple items). Game: Fallout 3 (should also work for Oblivion and New Vegas). *Easy*

2). Faction-changing outfits Game: Fallout 3 *Easy*

3). Making an NPC Follower. Game: Fallout 3 *Adept* (Method 1) *Easy* (Method 2)

4). Adding Songs to Radio Stations Game: Fallout 3 *Adept* (possibly breaks Lore)

5). Gun Tutorial. Game: Fallout 3 *Easy*

6). Making FOMODs through Fallout Mod Manager, Game: Fallout 3 *Adept*

7). Trigger Zones Game: Fallout 3 *Adept*

8). Adding a Jail and enhancing Fallout 3's Crime System. Game: Fallout 3 *Advanced* (heavily lore-breaking!)

9). Patrol AI Package Game: Fallout 3. *Adept*

10). Map Marker Tutorial, Game: Fallout 3 *Easy*

11). Repeatable Enemy Raids, Game: Fallout 3 *Adept*

12). Repeatable Enemy Raids; Additional Locations, Game: Fallout 3 *Adept*

13). Fixing the Sideways Glasses Bug. Game: Fallout 3 and New Vegas *Easy*

14). . CTD while saving after Startup Fix (sort of). Game: Fallout 3 *Easy*

15). Fallout 3 GECK issues with Windows 10

16). Making an NPC Vendor/Repair Person

17). Speech Challenges *Easy*

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TES V: SKYRIM

1). Making an NPC Follower, Game: TES: V Skyrim *Easy*

2). Making an NPC Vendor, Game: TES V Skyrim *Adept*

3a). Making a generic enemy. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

3b). How to add Generic NPCs via Leveled Lists Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

4). Making a book bump a quest stage, Game TES V Skyrim *Hand-Holdy*

5). Skyrim Quest Tutorial (which gives the PC a horse) WIP at the moment.. do NOT follow this lesson.

6). Respawning Bounty Quests (Randomly given by Riverwood shopkeeper) Game: TES V: Skyrim *Advanced* (if entire lesson is followed. Adept, otherwise).

7). How to fix "missing flowchartx32.dll" errors. Game: TES V: Skyrim. *Advanced*

8). SEQ Files, Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

9). Repeatable Bounty Quests. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

10). Adding new locations to repeatable bounty quests. Game: TES V: Skyrim. *Adept*

11). Random Console Commands. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

12). How to use ForceGreet. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

13). Using the Player-Character's face for an NPC. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

14). How to add a bounty to the PC via script. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

15). How to add the PC or NPC into a Faction via script. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Easy*

16). Get a Job! (Skyrim) *Adept*

17). Travelling with an NPC (Skyrim) *Advanced*

18). Traveling with an NPC, Additional Locations *Advanced*

19). Travelling with an NPC, Additional Followers (Skyrim) *Advanced*

20). Dialog Speech Checks, Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

21). Fixing the Gray Face Bug, Game: TES V: Skyrim (lesson by SubRosa) *Easy*

22). Script Fragments. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

23). Fixing the ;CODE NOT LOADED message. Game: TES V: Skyrim *Advanced*

24). Timer Scripts, Game, TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

25). Making a Book Shelf, Game: TES V: Skyrim. *Adept*

26). Adding an AI Package to an NPC (Aliases also discussed a bit), Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

27). Follower Ring Script Game: TES V: Skyrim *Adept*

28). Installing Skyrim from Scratch *Adept*

29). Removing delinquent scripts from the Creation Kit *Adept*

30). Items which bump Quest Stages (or other factors such as variables) *Easy*

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ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE

1). Setting up a gamepad controller. Game: Elder Scrolls Online *Adept*

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MULTIPLE BETHESDA GAMES, WEBSITES, and UTILITIES SECTION

1). How to transfer games from Xbox to PC Games: any Bethesda game after Morrowind.

2). Nexus Mod Manager Tips *Easy*

3). Manipulating Leveled Lists -- This works for any Bethesda game with Leveled Lists *Easy*

4). Timer Scripts Game: TES IV Oblivion or Fallout 3 *Adept*

5). Fixing the Imgur "Zoinks" error *Easy* (Doesn't always work, though you can try...)

6). Light Switches and Triggers. Games: Oblivion, Fallout 3 & NV, Skyrim *Easy*

7). Disabling Windows 10 Updates for GOOD

8). Graphics card troubleshooting (Windows 8.1)

9). Change an .esp to an .esm (or vice versa)

10). Getting an Xbox controller to work on PC

11). Getting the hair from one mod to work on an NPC from another *Easy*

12). How to fix "Netapi32.dll is missing" errors (Windows 10)

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> Some tutorials are Hand-Holdy and have been marked so, next to the links below. These tutorials include instructions for near-absolute beginners, and have steps which can be skipped by those with more experience. I've included these super-novice lessons because I remember what it was like when I was new, and needed help with some of the most basic concepts! ... Too embarrassed to bother the pros with question after question and so on. Hopefully some beginners can learn a few things here, at the safety of their own desktops. In some cases I've included video links (or written-text links from other sites) which lead to the lessons which I, myself was able to learn from.

>> Easy tutorials are short in length (typically less than an hour) or involve minimal brain-power. I may skip a few things compared to Hand-Holdy (such as how to set up an NPC) because it's assumed the reader already knows them. Any script examples are going to be minimal, and not so difficult.

>>> Adept tutorials are somewhere between Easy and Advanced. More steps are utilized during these, not everything is explained 100%, and/or just a higher level of resources and knowledge are necessary. There's more to keep track of, etc. It's recommended to keep a Notepad or some other Text-based program going for these lessons, or hand-write into an actual notebook.

>>>> Advanced tutorials may skip even more things, because it's assumed the modder already has knowledge of these things. To an extent, some experimentation is involved. New processes are being tried, by me at least, sometimes these processes have nothing to do with what's been used by Bethesda themselves. So be prepared to maybe try additional ideas, tweaks, or methods of your own if things don't work as described.

Continuing Advanced: It's recommended to keep a Notepad or some other Text-based program going for these lessons, or hand-write into an actual notebook. The ideas themselves may not always work correctly (although they do work in my game, otherwise I wouldn't post them). Conflicts may happen with other mods which go into the same territories as what's being worked on, especially overhauls. If another mod in your list makes changes to Megaton's worldspace for instance, my Megaton Jail idea might conflict. These lessons also involve many more steps, resources, utilities, and factors than Easy or Adept lessons. Hours and hours of work and/or tweaks! In some cases (when working with a utility or software issue), rare or esoteric issues may occur with the utilities themselves. Extended moments of testing and/or aggravation may occur!

>>>>> *Expert* tutorials require the very topmost skills and knowledge. So far I haven't got anything I consider difficult enough to go into this category, since I, myself, have never gone this far with quest/script studies. Even after 8 years I'm still learning, and do not consider myself an expert scripter!


For anyone who's new to using a controller for PC, rather than mouse + keyboard, here's the Xpadder Walkthrough page. Xpadder is a site which allows gaming controllers to mimic the key & mouse functions. Xpadder, or similar programs such as Joy to Keys, are absolutely crucial to get the most out of older games such as Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, for those who prefer controllers. They can also be used for newer games (Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim) to provide alternate controlling scenarios during times when a game's native D-pad arrangement needs to be shut off.



Bethesda Units. (How distance compares in-game to real-life).

This post has been edited by Renee: May 14 2025, 03:27 PM

[Renee]

Horse Rentals. Game: TES IV: Oblivion


This is going to make a horse rentable in TES IV: Oblivion. Renting a horse (rather than buying one) is good for someone who hasn't go a lot of money available yet. Another advantage is: if the horse gets killed, at least the PC did not blow weeks or even months of earnings! In roleplay terms: maybe the character has also not become too attached to the poor horse in such a scenario.

So this idea is going to make it possible to rent a horse for one month, from a Chestnut Handy NPC who I'm something going to call Stable Master, or aaaStableMaster. After the horse is rented, it is essentially owned by the Player. After a month has passed, the horse will return to Chestnut Handy Stables, near the Imperial City. It will also no longer belong to the Player.


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OBJECT window > Actors > NPC
1). Edit an NPC, doing all the usual steps, and place this NPC wherever. This is going to be the stable master who we rent the horse from. I am going to call this guy aaaStableMaster

I am placing my NPC (an orc) into the Chestnut Handy pen, where all the horses are kept. In fact, my original idea was so make this NPC sell horses, not rent them, since the vanilla game doesn't allow us to buy horses here (ahem). But buying horses is nothing new. I want to try something new.


Now to make the horse itself. Horses are to be found in two areas of the Construction Set's Object window: Creature > Creature or Creature > Horse.

--Do not edit anything from the Creature > Creature section. These cannot be ridden. These are (in fact) the wild horses which can sometimes be seen south of the Imperial City.

--Do not edit anything quest-related, or anything from the MyHorse area.
--Do not edit an ImpLegion horse.


Actors > Creature > Horse
2a). Right-click > Edit a basic horse, such as HorsePaint. These are good to start with since they haven't got any scripts.

2b). Change ID and Name, I am calling it aaaPaintHorseRental and Paint Horse Rental.


Stats tab
2c). By default, most horses are Level 1, and they are somewhat weak. A Bay has 250 health, for instance. This may seem quie a lot, but since it's possible for a person to acquire even more, I don't feel bad toggling PC Level Offset on. This horse is special. It can have hundreds more health. It'll last longer, if it happens to get into a fight!

2d). Toggle Respawn on (if it's not on). You can leave Can Corpse Check toggled on or off.

No Low Level Processing should be toggled OFF. If it's toggled on by default, you're in the wrong section; probably in the Creature > Creature > Horse section instead of Creature > Horse.

2e). Get rid of any AI packages.

By default, base horses have zero Aggression, 50 Confidence, 25 Energy Level, and 50 Responsibility.. They will never pick fights, but somehow they'll be able to know if our character is stealing. Weird. Change these around, if desired.

Factions tab
By default, basic horses are part of the Prey faction, which has an interfaction relationship of -50 to the Creature Faction. Yikes. It's up to you if you'd like to place this horse into the HorsePC faction (which causes the horse to stay absolutely loyal to the Player, unless broadly attacked over and over) or play around with a customized faction. The reason this is important is by default, horses get attcked by a lot of Player enemies, which can get annoying. It might be prudent to try to change this.

I am going to experiment by not putting the horse into any faction at all. Because like I said, the vanilla game has an annoying habit of making enemies attack our horse first, instead of attacking the PC. Maybe this has something to do with the HorsePC faction MyHorses are placed into.

2f). Click OK, saving as a New Form. Find an appropriate worldspace, and place the horse out into the world.

2g). Give the horse a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaPaintHorseRentalRef. Copy this ID and paste it onto a Notepad page so it can be pasted into scripts later.

2h). Click on the Ownership tab, and find the NPC stablehand in the NPC scroll-bar. If the horse is not rented, this NPC owns the horse, and it's considered stealing if it's not paid for. Click OK.

OBJECT window > WorldObjects > Static
3). Drag an XMarker out into the Render window. Give this X-marker a Reference ID. I am calling it aaaPaintHorseReturnXMarker. This marker is where the horse will return after its rental terms is over.

Again, copy this ID and paste it onto the same Notepad page, so it can be pasted into scripts later.


QUEST window
4a). Start a new quest. This quest does not need a name, unless you want it to appear in the Quests section of the in-game menu for some reason. Otherwise, this quest does not require stages, and therefore does not need a Name.

4b). Change Priority to 30. This is the standard number for Bethesda's own Horse quest.

4c). Leave Start Game Enabled toggled on. Toggle Allow repeated conversation topics on as well.

4d). GetIsPlayableRace == 1.00 goes into the Quest Conditions winow.

4e). Start a script, and add these variables.

scriptname aaaHorseQuestScript

short Rent
short Timer
short StartDay

Save that, click OK, and reopen the quest window. Find the script in the scroll-bar and click OK. Reopen the quest window.


Topics tab
5a). We're going to make a total of five GREETINGs. Each one has a different set of options and QuestVariables.

Greeing one is what starts the dialog. "Hi, my name is Bob. I rent horses here at Chestnut Handy Stables...." this NPC explains that he or she rents horses, rather than sells them (or eats them).

5b). In the Conditions window, make a GetISID for the NPC created ealier.

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 0.00

5c). In the Result Script box, type Set QuestName.Rent to 1

5d). Right-click > AddTopic into the Add Topics window. Start a new topic called aaaHorseTopic. Add this into the Editor ID window, too.
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Greeting Two: this gets spoken if dialog is started (the first GREETING is spoken), but for some reason the PC backs out of conversation.
The dialog spoken during Greeting two can be siomething simple. "Can I help you?" Conditions go like this...

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 1.00

Add the same aaaHorseTopic into the Add Topics window.

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Greeting Three: this is another interim greeting, spoken when the QuestVariable is at 2. Again, this gets spoken if the Player backs out of conversatio early, but then returns to the NPC.

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 2.00

Add the same aaaHorseTopic into the Add Topics window.

Set QuestName.Rent to 1 goes into the Result Script box.

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Greeting Four gets spoken after the player-character rents the horse, backs out of conversation, but for whatever reason returns to speak to the NPC stable master. "How is your horse? I hope everythin is satisfactory." and so on. By now, the PC temporarily owns the beast.

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 3.00

Add aaaHorseTopic into the Add Topics window. A Result Script is not needed.

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Greeting Five is used after the horse rental has ended, and the player retuns to the stablehand NPC to maybe try renting it again. "You have returned.... bla bla bla."

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 4.00

Result Script: Set QuestName.Rent to 1

Add aaaHorseTopic into the Add Topics window.

Click OK and save.


QUEST window > Topics tab
6a). Select aaaHorseTopic (or whatever this first custom topic was called). Change the Topic Text name to something in plain English, if necessary.

6b). Two responses are going into the Info window.

In the first one, it is explained further to the PC that there is a horse (or horses) available for rent. "We have paints, bays, and chestnuts..." The NPC explains how much each selection will cost for that month. The stablehand also explains that after the month is over, the horse will return to its home stable. Write this response. Conditions go like this...

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 1.00

Result Script: Set QuestName.Rent to 2.

6b). In the Choices window I'll start a Paint Horse topic choice and a No choice. Eventually there will be a Bay Horse Topic choice and a Chestnut Horse Topic choice. But for now, right-click > Add Topic. Since the first horse I'm adding is a paint, I'm calling the topic aaaPaintHorseTopic.

Add aaaBayPaintTopic (or whatever it's called) into the Editor ID window.


6c). Also add a "No" topic into the Chocies window. If you already have a No topic from other quests, this can get reused. If you do not have a No topic, create one, and make sure to add it into the Editor ID as well. Here are its conditions and Result Script.

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent <= 2.00

Result Script: Set QuestName.Rent to 0

6d). Click OK and save.


7a). Go back into the Quest window and back into the initial Horse topic (which I called aaaHorseTopic). Start a second response. "You have already rented a horse from me, is there a problem?"

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 3.00

There is no Result Script or Choices for this topic. After one horse has been rented, it is not possible to rent another; doing so would complicate things. So this topic is simply an empty 'filler' which follows the fourth GREETING.

7b). In the Editor ID window, go back to the first horse choice. I called this aaaPaintHorseTopic. Dialog can go like "Yes, I've got a fine paint available. Slow, but durable, and more highly maneuverable than a faster horse. Good for rugged terrain..."

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 2.00

7c). In the Choices window, add a "yes" choice (aaaYesPaint), and a "no" choice. The No choice can be the same No used before. Add aaaYesPaint into the Editor ID.

7d). Select aaaYesPaint in the Editor ID window. Topic Text can be changed to "Yes, I'd like to rent a paint horse." Two responses are going to be written here: one which the stablemaster will say if the PC has enough gold, and one which hte stablemaster will say if the PC does not have enough. Let's start with the first response.

7e). "Very good, that paint over there is now yours for the next thirty days..." says the stablehand. In my game, this guy will charge 120 gold for the month.

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 2.00 AND
GetGold ......... NONE.... >= 120

Make sure to toggle Run on Targlet ON for that final GetGold condition.

Result Scripts:

aaaPaintHorseRentalRef.SetOwnership
Set QuestName.Rent to 3
Message "Paint Horse has been rented for one month", 30
Player.RemoveItem Gold001 120

Notice that the SetOwnership script does not refer to the Player. It took me awhile to figure out, if nobody is referenced, the referenced item will automatically go to the Player! (You don't know how many error messages I sat through as I kept trying to include Player here. Grr....)

7f). But what happens if the PC does not have enough money? "No, I asked for 120 gold. And this is not enough..." goes the dialog. Toggle Goodbye on, so the quest's dialog gets forced back to the beginning (from the stablehand's point of view).

GetIsID NPC: aaaStableMaster == 1.00 AND
GetGold ......... NONE....< 120.00

Again, toggle Run on Target ON for that GetGold condition.

Result Script: Set QuestName.Rent to 0

7g). Click OK and save. All the dialog has been written, so phew.


QUEST window > Quest Data tab
8a). Time to write yet another Timer script. I love these things. This has already been started with the three short variables.

scriptname aaaHorseQuestScript

short Rent
short Timer
short StartDay

Begin GameMode

If (Timer == 0)
If (aaaHorseQuest.Rent == 3)

Set Timer to 1
Set StartDay to GameDaysPassed

EndIf
EndIF

If (Timer == 1)
If ((GameDaysPassed - StartDay) >= 30)

aaaPaintHorseRentalRef.SetOwnership aaaStableMaster
aaaBayHorseRentalRef.SetOwnership aaaStableMaster
aaaChestnutHorseRentalRef.SetOwnership aaaStableMaster
Set QuestName.Rent to 4
Set Timer to 0

Message "My horse rental has expired.", 30

EndIf
EndIf

End

Note: I have assumed three horses have been made: a paint, a bay, a chestnut. If any of them haven't been added yet, make sure to put a semi-colon in front of those which aren't made (or aren't referenced) yet.


8b). Save that, click OK, and save from the main toolbar.

RENDER window
9a). Make sure the X-marker created earlier is onscreen. It also helps to find the horse as well, and have both of these items onscreen. Double left-click on the horse, and click its AI button. Two packages are needed: one which causes the horse to return home after the rental has expired, and one which causes the horse to NOT return home, assuming it's been paid for.

9b). Let's start the go home package. Right-click > New into the AI Package List window. Name the ID something specific for that horse, such as aaaPaintHorseReturnHome. Click on the Package Type scroll-bar and find Travel.

9c). Toggle Must Reach Location and Defensive Combat on. You can also toggle Always Run on, which might allow the horse to make it back home without getting pwned.

9d). Click on the Conditions tab. GetQuestVarible 'QuestName', Rent == 4.00 goes here.

9e). Click on the Location tab. Toggle Near Reference on, click Select Reference in Render Window, and double left-click on the X-marker. Click OK.

9f). Right-click > New into the AI Package List window again, and name its ID aaaHorseDismounted. Find Wander in the Package Type scroll-bar.

9g). Toggle Must Complete on. Defensive Combat can also be toggled on.

9h). Conditions tab: GetQuestVariable 'QuestName', Rent == 3.00.

9i). Location tab: select Near Current Location and use a binary number (such as 512) for the Radius slot. This way, the horse will wander around a bit when dismounted, looking for grass to munch on, perhaps. It is also possible to simply choose 0 for Radius, if you really want to keep the horse from wandering into trouble.

Note that when dismounting the horse, this will cause any other rentable horses to also wander a bit in their stables, way back home! This is safe, as long as "home" is not located near an enemy lair.

9j). Click OK. Click Save. Click OK. And Save.


10a). Finally, we need a way to alert the game if the latest horse being rented gets pwned. Open up the horse's Creature panel from the Object or Reference windows. Start a new script like so...

scriptname aaaPaintHorsepwnedScript

short Dead
short DoOnce

Begin GameMode

End


10B). Save the script, close the script panel, bla bla bla...

Here is the rest of it... and this includes only the Paint horse, which means a different script will be needed for each horse. There is probably a way to write it so that only one script is needed for ALL horses. Problem is, the Construction Set doesn't recognize GetDead as a condition as well as the GECK and Creation Kit do, which makes finding a solution for all horses difficult...

scriptname aaaPaintHorsepwnedScript

short Dead
short DoOnce

Begin GameMode

If (aaaPaintHorseRental.GetDead == 1)
If (aaaHorseRentalQuest.Rent > 2)

Set aaaHorseRentalQuest.Rent to 0
Set aaaHorseRentalQuest.Timer1 to 0
Set aaaHorseRentalQuest.StartDay1 to 0

Set aaaPaintHorseRentalRef.Dead to 1
Set aaaPaintHorseRentalRef.DoONce to 1

Message "My current rented horse has been pwned!", 30

EndIf
EndIf

If (aaaPaintHorseRental.GetDead != 1) && (aaaPaintHorseRental.DoOnce == 1)

Set aaa.PaintHorseRental.Dead to 0
Set aaaPaintHorseRental.DoOnce to 0

EndIf

End


10c). Save the script and close it. Click OK.

Now reopen the horse quest. Go into the Topics tab and find the first specific horse-type topic. In my game I've got aaaPaintHorseTopic.

10d). Add a condition: GetScriptVariable Ref: 'aaaPaintHorseRentalRef,' Dead == 0.00

10e). Add a second instance of dialog which includes the same conditions, but adds GetScriptVariable Ref: 'aaaPaintHorseRentalRef,' Dead == 1.00, and dialog for this will obviously be "We haven't got a paint for rent..."


=-------------------------------------------

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 27 2023, 12:03 AM

[Renee]

Getting an Xbox controller to work on PC. Game: TES III: Morrowind

First of all, for those who want an Xbox controller which behaves just like the controller on console, here is a *LINK* >> It links to an Xpadder template, and was not created by me.
>>> The problem with this template is it does not include variable left joystick movement. It works digitally; we can only walk at one speed, or run at one speed.

That won't work for me. And I've always wanted to change some of the buttons which were fixed on Xbox, anyway.
So, this tutorial is for those who want to set up their own controller mapping.


TES IV Oblivion hasn't got very good support for those who prefer using Xbox controllers on PC. Yes, we can toggle Use Joystick on in this game's settings menu, but getting true variable walking/running movement is not always guaranteed.

Morrowind also gives us the ability to Enable Joystick right in its Options > Controls menu, and oddly, variable movement works flawlessly in this game. But Morrowind also does a few things wrong, or at least .... odd. Using the left joystick for movement is flawless for instance, but using the right joystick for looking around does not work. And there are a couple other odd things about how this game's controller usage got hardcoded by Bethesda. Some of you may already know of these odd things, which is why you're here.

So here is a guide on how I set up my Xbox 360 controller to work with Morrowind, on PC. Keep in mind, I use the Morrowind which came with the Anthology disc set. This is version MCP 2.4. Not sure if other versions, especially earlier versions, also have all the features found in 2.4.


1). First step is to procure Xpadder. This is a small program which converts a controller's buttons, triggers, bumpers, and joysticks into mouse & keyboard inputs. It is easy to use, includes plenty of helpful walkthroughs, guides, forums, and costs a small, one-time fee. If you've never used this program before, go ahead and start with the site's walkthrough section to get your controller template working. This took me about a hour or two when I was new to PC gaming. It's sort of fun, magical even, to watch an Xbox controller come to life on PC as we set it up.

Joy to Keys and other such programs might also work, but I don't have any experience with these, and so this guide will focus on using Xpadder. Others out there can try using other programs, but I cannot guarantee they'll work.

Anyway, once the controller is working through Xpadder, move on to step 2. The rest of this guide shall describe how I like to set up my controller; others out there can try experimenting with what's below, to try to suit their ideals.


2). Start the game and go into Morrowind's Options > Controls menu. Toggle Enable Joystick on. Voila, Bethesda nailed it. We've got true variable walking / running movement, and can also strafe left and right with true variable speed. Beth's off to a surprisingly good start here, in this ancient game.

From here on however, things get downright bizarre. Let's start with the Xbox's triggers.

-- With Morrowind, Bethesda did something really wonky with Xbox triggers: they made it so that the left trigger makes us turn right, and the right trigger makes us turn left. The right joystick (which is what most of us would use to look around) is useless at this point; instead we're supposed to use triggers to look left and right!

Go ahead and try moving / looking around. What a mess, eh? How are we supposed to navigate the world like this?


3a). So let's start with the left and right triggers. Exit the game by pressing the Esc button > Exit. Now start Xpadder.

3b). Assign a keyboard key to each trigger. I just assigned the letter J and the letter M, left and right respectively. These two keys shall become my Journal and Menus in the game, see.

This is sort of a compromise, of course. Since Beth hardcoded the triggers to become the game's "look around" function, that is exactly what those triggers will still do. I have searched and Googled, looking for a way to change this, but all I've found are other gamers out there, trying to change the same thing!

Good thing is, as long as I tap a trigger (rather than push it) I'll be able to pull up my Journal and Menus, with minimal character-spin. Since these two functions are brought up with one tap, this is why I prefer to map the triggers in this way. If I had mapped Jump to a trigger for instance, that would become awkward, as my character would now turn slightly left or right every time he or she jumped.


3c). Assign your controller's Start button with Esc on the keyboard. Now we can exit the game (as well as save, load, et cetera) without pressing Esc on the keyboard.

3d). I prefer my controller's A button to be what I use when I'm trying to Use something in the game (such as using a weapon, or casting a spell), but I also like the A button to select menu items. This equates to the left mouse button. So in Xpadder, select the A button and assign the left mouse button to it.

Final step with Xpadder is to get that right joystick to work, so it's really important. We need to be able to look left and right, but also up and down, and all around.

3e). Right now the right joystick should be five blank buttons (when viewed through Xpadder) which are in the shape of a cross. Click on the "wrench" icon which is in the lower right of this cross.

3f). Select Mouse - Normal at the top of the pop-up menu. Now select Standard in the menu's lower portion. These are the two settings I like to use, and those who are reading this guide can try experimenting with other choices, such as W.S.A.D. or Arrows. But those settings I just used should guarantee right joystick movement corresponds to mouse (Look Around) movement in the game.

Click OK, closing the mouse menu.

3g). At the top of Xpadder, select the middle icon, which is in the shape of a square, save and name the Xpadder profile as it exists so far.

Now start the game, and make sure that right joystick allows us to look all around, just like it does in Oblivion, Skyrim, and every other game which allows controller support.

3h). OPTIONAL, for those who have problems with left joystick "creeping". In other words, we let go of the left joystick, but our character sometimes still 'creeps' (strafes) slowly left or right. Close the game and click on Xpadder's left joystick's wrench icon.

3i). On the right side of this menu is DeadZone. Use your mouse to drag the DeadZone pointer left or right. Notice the red area which is in the center of the Status display. This area gets larger and smaller as we move the pointer right or left. Now move the left joystick around. This causes a dot to move around in the display as well. If the pointer remains in the red area once the joystick is released, this is good. This means the game cannot read the joystick, and our character should no longer creep.

For those who have problems with strafe-creeping, you'll be wanting to drag the pointer somewhat to the right. I prefer about 40% to the right.

3j). Click OK, Save the profile, and get back into the game. Make sure your character no longer creeps.



The rest of your buttons can be set up while in the game, and I shall describe what I prefer. There are still a couple of wonky things to beware of, and I shall explain them.

4a). Press the Start button on your Xbox controller. This probably does two things: it opens up the menu which includes Return, New, Load (etc.) but it also opens up the game's quest journal. And I want to get rid of the "journal" part.

4b). You should be able to move the right joystick around to move the onscreen pointer around, or you can use the mouse to do so. Now select Options. Select Controls. The game's left joystick has already been set up as Enable Joystick, which is why Forward, Back, Left, and Right do not have corresponding keyboard inputs.

4c). Scroll down (scroll scroll scroll....) with the mouse wheel to Journal. Use the controller's A button (or left click with the mouse) on Journal (it should turn red), and press the controller's left trigger. This will cause the current selection, which said Joy 6 I think, to go blank. Which is okay.

4d). Click OK, click Return, and close the Journal. Now try pressing the Start button again. The Save/Load menu should pop up, but the Journal should not. Try pressing the left trigger lightly. This causes the Quest Journal to open.

... Now, some of you might not like this, and may wish to change the left trigger to Jump or Ready Weapon or whatever. Go ahead and experiment if you please.

... Also, if your game is like mine, Journal will glitch back on, every time the game is closed and restarted. I don't know why this is. Every time I restart my game, I must also remember to reassign Journal to the left trigger, otherwise it also gets opened whenever I click on the Start button. Thankfully, Journal is the only button which glitches like this, at least for me.

5). The rest of those triggers, bumpers, buttons and joysticks can be set up however you'd like, but there are still a couple other things to watch for. The directional pad for instance. It is VERY sensitive.

Here is how I set up the rest of my controller...

Use = A button (Joy 0... left-click with the mouse on Use, select the controller's A button, and then use the mouse to right-click on Use. This can take a few tries.)

Activate = press left joystick (Joy 8)

Ready Weapon = Y button (Joy 3)

Ready Magic = B button (Joy 1)

Sneak = S, on the keyboard -- I've got my Xpadder profile so that if I press + hold the left joystick and press Y, this equals the letter S. This requires a second Xpadder template which activates whenever I press down on the left joystick. A bit complicated I know, but using the D-pad for sneak (as I originally had it) is too sensitive.

Run -- Not needed (the left joystick handles both walking and running). If Run has been automatically assigned a button, left-click on Run with the mouse. Now click on both mouse buttons: left-click and right-click, both at the same time. This should cause the area next to Run to be blank, unassigned to any button. And if that doesn't work, assign a key which is not used. For me this is the letter K.

Always Run -- Not used

Jump = X button (Joy 2)

Next Weapon = right bumper (Joy 5)

Previous Weapon -- Not used

Next Spell = left bumper (Joy 4)

Previous Spell -- Not used

Toggle POV = press right joystick (Joy 9)

Menu Mode = right trigger (the area next to Menu Mode will stay blank)

Journal = left trigger (the area next to Journal will stay blank)

Rest = Select button (Joy 6)

I personally have not figured out how to use all the Quick slots, Quick Save, or Quick Load, so from here I just click OK, click Return, and now I'm back in the game.

For hotkeys, I use the game's native system from the keyboard: F1 opens the menu, and I've got 8 hotkeys in Morrowind just like Oblivion. I also used X-padder to configure keys like so...

Quick 1: left stick down +D-pad up: F2
Quick 2: left stick down +D-pad NE: F3
Quick 3: left stick down +D-pad right: F4
Quick 4: left stick down +D-pad SE: F6
Quick 5: left stick down +D-pad down: F7
Quick 6: left stick down +D-pad SW: F8
Quick 7: left stick down +D-pad lft: F11
Quick 8: left stick down +D-pad NW: F10

all hotkeys are put into a second X-padder which I access by holding down the left stick, I had to set it up that way due to my oversensitive D-pad but hopefully you won't. And here is how to set horkeys up in the game.

1). Press F1 on keyboard. Quick Keys panel should pop.

2). Press any of the first 8 numbers. I'll press 1.

3). Choose Inventory, Magic, or Delete.

I'll choose Magic > Absorb Health

4). Click OK. Now test the results. Left stick down + D-pad up = Absorb Health.

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To configure new hotkeys in-game, press Start on the controller. Scroll down to the Quck area. I'm left-clicking 4.

A thin red box appears to the right of the Controls menu. Select whatever key on the keyboard should correspond. I just chose F6 (which coorrorrosponds to D-pad left).

Click OK.

If the n/a message shows up, left-click on n/a and press down on the mouse wheel.




Always make sure your controller is ON when starting the game. If it is not on and the game is started, the game will revert some of those carefully-chosen settings back to pure Mouse + Keys, which can sometimes cause problems. Personally I always restart my game if this happens.

6). One final thing to add. Whenever we try to buy something, or pick up something from the ground, or from a container, and there is more than one thing to buy or pick up, the game will simply choose everything at once. So if we try to buy three arrows, but the merchant has 100 arrows, we'll wind up trying to buy all 100 of those arrows. This doesn't happen on Xbox.

On PC, this is because we need to press either Shift key (left or right, it doesn't matter) as we hover the cursor over multiple objects. So the Xpadder layout needs to be called up again. Choose any one of those buttons or bumpers, and make this correspond to either shift key. I used my controller's B button.

Back in the game, we'll need to HOLD the button just chosen as we buy or pick up multiple items. So I am holding my B button while hovering over multiple items, and then pressing the A button (Use) to select them. This causes a nifty scroll bar to pop up, and now I can select whatever number of items I choose.

The Shift key is also used when deleting spells. Again, put the cursor over the spell we wish to delete, hold your 'shift' button, and press Use. There will be a Yes No option to get rid of the spell.

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TROUBLESHOOTING


1). When in the opening menu, if n/a keep showing up under the Run function, assign an unused letter from the keyboard. I choose K, for instance.

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2). If Rest says n/a, left-click on it, press Select button, now left-click on Rest 2x. It should say Joy 6

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3). If Use is blank, left-click on it, press A button, now left-click on it again.

If 2 and 3 keep failing (especially if n/a keeps alternating between Rest and Use) try alt-tabbing from the game. Change the A button on X-padder from mouse left-click to NONE.

Go back in the game. Reassign Rest and/or Use. Hopefully Rest should be Button 6 and Use Button 0. Make sure both of those work.

Alt-tab again, and reassign the A button to mouse left-click on X-padder.


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4). if it says n/a for any of the movement functions (Forward, Back, Left, or Right) left-click on whichever one it says and press the mouse wheel.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 31 2025, 08:16 PM