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]

Dialog Speech Checks Game: TES V: Skyrim

This tutorial comes from this Creation Kit page, main difference is I'm going to make this step by step, and add a couple things as well.

There are several ways Speech works in Skyrim. First, we'll discuss Persuasion. An example is from the WERJ02 quest (Thieves Guild Holdup), which has a thief walking up to us as we travel roads, and demanding money. There is a chance to Persuade the thief to leave us alone, as well as chances for Intimidation, walking away, or simply getting into a brawl. I will also include Bribery. We can't bribe the thief, but there are times when bribes can be offered. An example is when we approach the gates of Whiterun for the very first time, and a guard tells us we cannot go into town.

PERSUASION

Object window > Character > Quests
1a). Use the Dialogue Views or Player Dialogue systems to start some dialog. ID can be whatever's unique, it's the Topic Text that's going to be important, since there needs to be something which makes it obvious which topic to click on for persuasion. Here is an example.

Do I look like I am rich? (Persuade)

Note that (Persuade) must be physically typed (and with parentheses) into the Topic Text slot, as seen next to the 'Do I look like I am rich?' topic.

1b). Two infos are needed under this topic, okay? First info, the NPC is persuaded by our character's loquacious Speechcraft abilities. Second info, they ... aren't.

Speech works: You win. I'll leave you be.. for now.

Speech doesn't work: Prepare for your room... erm... doom!!!

Make sure the Prompt slot is not used; both infos should share the same Topic Text.

1c). Goodbye is toggled on for both infos. Basically, the NPC will leave our toon alone if he or she is persuaded, or try to fight if not, with no further dialog.

1d). Use whatever conditions are appropriate, but make sure GetActorValue Speechcraft is used for the successful Info. Here is the entire condition.

PL GetActorValue Speechcraft >= X

The Player is used as a reference in the Run On scroll-bar. And where the X is there are two options. A physical number can be used to define how difficult the condition should be, but what's even easier to use are globals.

1e) Toggle Use Global on and find the Speech section in the Value scroll-bar. So if we want a really easy persuasion attempt, go for PL GetActorValue Speechcraft >= SpeechVeryEasy

1f). Type a semicolon script ;Persuasion succeeds into the Begin: Papyrus Script box. Compile that. Click OK 2x and reopen.

Again, this condition is not needed for the "fail" dialog.

2a). Add a property to the script.

Name: pFavorDialogueScript
Type: FavorDialogueScript (don't try looking for it in the scroll-bar, just type it in).

2b). Click Edit Value. There's only one value to pick which is DialogueFavorGeneric. Click OK 3x and reopen the Quest and Topic Info panels.

2c). Type ; pFavorDialogueScript.Persuade(akSpeaker) into the Begin: Papyrus box. Compile that with a semicolon first, then compile it again without the semicolon.


Now let's move on to the negative response... make sure the NPC is in the Render Window, and has been given a Reference ID. Keep in mind that this will only work for a specific NPC. Beth's random road thieves use a much more complicated system of dialogs and aliases, since they needed to write their quest dialog for a radiant-type thief who is not specific.

3a). Response Text: "You can't fool me!"

Flags: Goodbye

Papyrus script: ;Persuasion attempt fails

3b). Two properties are needed for this script: one for the Player, and one for the NPC who attacks us. I start with the NPC.

Property Name: aaaNPCName (this can be the NPC's actual base ID name.)

Type: Actor

Edit Value: Find the NPC in the Cell and Reference scroll-bars, or simply double left-click on the NPC in the Render window.

3c).
Property Name: Player (or PlayerRef).

Type: Actor

Edit Value: Choose (any) for the Cell scroll-bar and PlayerRef for the reference.

3d). The Papyrus fragment is aaaNPCName.StartCombat(Game.GetPlayer())

Note that StartCombat can also be used if our character wishes to just skip the speech stuff, and choose to fight. "I'd rather die!" is Beth's topic text for this when dealing with road thieves.

INTIMIDATION

4a). Everything is the same so far as setting up dialog: two infos are used (one positive, one negative). But make sure to put (Intimidate) at the end of the Topic Text slot.

4b). For conditions, GetIntimidateSuccess == 1.00 is used for the positive response, and this can simply be kept on Subject for the Reference.

In Bethesda's words, "[when] successful according to the algorithm used by the game engine to calculate this, which takes into account variables such as the player's level and the speaker's [NPC's] confidence value, as well as the player's speechcraft skill and some other factors", that's when this condition becomes chosen.

4c). For the Papyrus script, make a script and property as per steps 1f through 2c up above, but the script used is pFavorDialogueScript.Intimidate(akSpeaker), which goes into the Begin box.

4d). Continue through steps 3a through 3d for the failed Intimidation attempt.

BRIBERY

5a). In this situation we attempt to pay those whom we're trying to influence. (<BribeCost> gold) goes at the end of the Topic Text. "Here, take my gold!" (<BribeCost> gold). "X" is a specific amount of coin, which automatically gets filled in by the game engine.

5b). This time, GetBribeSuccess == 1.00 is the needed condition.

5c). Follow steps 1f through 2c, with pFavorDialogueScript.Bribe(akSpeaker) going into the Begin script box.

For 5a, a specific amount of gold is not needed, as the favor dialogue script will calculate a levelled amount and handle its removal from the player's inventory. If a specific bribe amount is desired, its best to do this other ways without favor dialogue. GetItemCount works.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 19 2024, 06:16 PM