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 in the post below this one.


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

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.




This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 16 2024, 06:27 PM

[Renee]

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. 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