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Posted by: ghastley Oct 20 2014, 03:48 PM

I'm finding myself doing with mods what others do with their characters. I'm starting new ones, before I've finished work on the existing ones.

Bear Riders - I built Riders Lodge, added a couple of new NPC's, lots of skimpy outfits, and two or three quests. Got stuck trying to pair up recruits with their bears, and establish the patrols. I'm also having issues getting Unna to train more bears, because I don't know how to attach properties to an Actor.

Thieves Guild Continued - Created a number of new NPC's, the beginnings of the first quest, and added content to Riftweald Manor to open its doors once the Guild takes it over. Got stuck with quest conditions for executing Sibbi. I want to have him chopped by Svidi, but she may be dead, so I need Mjoll (who's essential) to step in for that situation. I just can't get the aliases to fill properly!

Orc Hearthfires - This was going nicely until it started crashing the game as soon as I created the small hut layout.

Elf Kids - I made a high-res head to generate the model-space normals, but can't get that process to work. The tutorial on it requires 3DS MAX and ZBrush, which I don't have. I figured out how to use Blender for the sculpting, but there's some subtle use of MAX that's eluding me. Stuck again.

Alik'r Dancer - still adding more content. It's released, but unfinished. I just made a modified Scimitar model, because I wasn't happy with the hilt on the vanilla one, and I'm working on a high-end one (probably ebony) for variety.

Diablita for Skyrim - She's OK apart from a kink in her tail when idle. It's a problem with one bone in the Bethesda animation, because I can see it in the Khajiit tail, too. It's just a lot more noticeable with a more slender tail. I downloaded the Havok tools to try and fix it myself, but again seem to need other software (like MAX) to use with it.

Hulk out - Actually finished that one! I just have to make myself leave it alone.

And all this is on top of multiple mods for my own use only, just to tweak things for one character. Drelka's getting a new dress like her one in Oblivion, for example.

I'm finding myself going back to my old characters and doing new quests with them. How do I get myself to go back and finish the mods I started?

Posted by: mALX Oct 20 2014, 11:57 PM

I've got a lot of these too, start some and become so immersed till either I add one too many things and crash the mod or come to a stopping point because of lack of knowledge or ability to perform some obscure function that I really REALLY want in the mod, lol.

Attaching properties to NPCs in Skyrim - I've noticed an obnoxious lack of flexibility on modding character's abilities and personalities, AI packages, Factions, etc - it is like when they made the game they decided not to allow us to mod characters beyond a certain point - or I am missing something?

I would love it if someone would teach me what it is if I'm just overlooking something, because I don't want to make an NPC character unless it can have a unique personality and do something special or different from all the other characters in game.

Posted by: ghastley Feb 13 2015, 08:30 PM

I'm doing it again, aren't I?

I looked on the Nexus, and there's already one mod that puts the Archmage's robe enchantment on a necklace. However, it uses a simple silver/sapphire model, rather than something unique, and it fails to prevent the player wearing both robes and necklace. Likewise, there's a mod to allow disenchanting the robes, but that get unbalanced with enchanting perks increasing the values, and the ability to enchant multiple pieces.

So I'll be giving you the Archmage's Amulet as soon as I have all the pieces working. Female and ground meshes work, script is in progress, and the male models are just a repeat of the same work I did for the female. You won't be able to wear both items at once, equipping the second will displace the first, as if they were in the same slot.

Posted by: mALX Feb 13 2015, 09:44 PM

Yeah, but anyone can get in the CK and attach any enchantment to a vanilla piece and upload it - You - You made that Awesome looking unique amulet! That amulet is a work of art!

Making models goes beyond modding, it is an amazing talent; one that I'd give anything to have! I'll never forget the amazing job you did making those awesome signs for my mod - they looked better than any other signs I've seen out there in any other mod or game!

I really appreciate that you are careful to ensure your mods aren't associated with being overpowered, too. It is an integrity that is fast diminishing in the modding community, sadly. I am afraid the advent and influx of so many younger modders from the Steam site has changed the tone of the modding community. There is a lack of gratitude, a lack of ethics, even outright mod stealing (not just of assets) going on now that was unheard of in the decade before.

Really, there is no comparison between your work and a simple enchantment of a vanilla piece (even I could do that without much instruction). Your work is realms apart in talent/skill required to make it (the amulet), etc. There is no comparison.


*

Posted by: ghastley Feb 14 2015, 04:56 AM

Does that mean you'll try it?

See the other thread for a link. You can use the console to check it out on your character, even if you're not Archmage yet.

Posted by: mALX Feb 14 2015, 12:26 PM

I always try out your mods, they are a blast!

Posted by: ghastley Aug 15 2015, 03:29 PM

So I was getting tired of building homes, and I started a new game with no DLC's and a male Redguard character, which I hadn't done before.

Naturally Kemel Al-Satakalaami (the Nords call him Al) wanted proper Alik'r armour, and I had to make him some.

http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/images/AlikrHeavy.jpg

This could get cleaned up and released at some point. It's just a helmet and the breastplate and pauldrons from the Steel Plate layered over the Redguard outfit. The gauntlets and boots he's wearing are regular Steel Plate. I made the new parts equivalent to the Steel Plate equivalents, and tempering the same. Not yet craftable, and I don't have a ground mesh for the helmet.

I'm thinking that making the pieces should have a different recipe than the Steel Plate they replace, needing less Steel, maybe with leather/iron taking their places - iron for the mesh on the helm, leather for the body armour.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 15 2015, 05:15 PM

That looks good. Why not use the Blades shield? Those always had an Islamic/Moorish look to them in both Skyrim and Oblivion.

Posted by: Grits Aug 15 2015, 05:20 PM

ghastley, this looks fantastic! Your recipe ideas make sense to me. Have you released the scimitar design you made? Hint, hint.

I’ve always liked dual-wielding with heavy armor since there’s no blocking, but most heavy armor just looks too clunky. You made the perfect solution.

(BTW, Al looks hot even with his face partly covered up. I had to zoom in and check him out. )

Posted by: ghastley Aug 15 2015, 06:01 PM

Only because he hasn't got that far in the MQ. He'll take a look at that shield when he encounters one. I don't let him get ahead of the game, so he had to wait until he could smith the Steel Plate before I let him have the Alik'r version. There's also a mod with alternative shields that I may try. No plans for a shield in this mod, as there's enough choice out there already.

Grits: I was considering putting the scimitar in the Alik'r Dancer mod with the white texture, but haven't finished that yet. His housecarl is wearing that, sort of. She has piercings instead of the bra and panties ( ) which meant that I never got round to texturing those bits. I'll have to do that some time.

Now the scimitar, and making it at the forge, will probably go with this.

Edit: Here's a http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/images/WhereAmIPlus.jpg of Al and his housecarl Claudia. She replaces Calder in his game. I almost posted this in the Where Am I thread, but I'm not sure I can remember where they are!

Edit again: Al now has a Blades Shield and I like the look, but there's no perk for tempering it, so it's starting to lag behind his other Steel Plate gear. I remade the helmet using the top of the stormcloak/guard one, and I'll post screenshots once I have the female version of everything done.

Posted by: ghastley Aug 20 2015, 06:40 PM

I was just about to toss this one out for testing, when I remembered that the male meshes were both copies of the weight 100 version. I still need to produce the other end of the scale.

I'll also take the time to consolidate the helmet textures into a single file. Right now, because the mesh is a combination of guard's helmet, redguard hood, and a piece of chainmail, those parts are each pointed at the texture files for the donor parts. I'd prefer to put them all on one map, so there's less to load.

The body is the same, but that's only two, and they're hard to squeeze onto a single map.

Posted by: Grits Aug 20 2015, 10:04 PM

Oh, I just now saw the screenshot you added with Claudia! Could they have been at Dead Man’s Respite? She looks gorgeous in her white dancer outfit!

Posted by: ghastley Aug 21 2015, 12:40 AM

Yes, that's Dead Man's Respite.

She's testing the http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/images/ClaudiaArmoured.jpg now.

I'm not sure if the change from a white sash to a red one has anything to do with the moons.

Posted by: Grits Aug 21 2015, 02:03 AM

The armor looks awesome! Thank goodness for Frost Resistance charms.

Posted by: mALX Aug 21 2015, 05:26 PM

I LOVE this armor!

Posted by: ghastley Aug 21 2015, 07:20 PM

Just got to get a good screenshot of him with the new helmet, plus one of the helmet itself for the wiki-page/icon. Now we've determined where the screenshots are taken, it shouldn't take long.

I spend most of the evening separating the armor mod from Claudia, giving it its own folders, re-pointing the nif's at those, re-pointing the esp at the new location of the meshes, re-making the recipes, because the scimitar stuff was in yet another mod.

Building the documentation is taking almost as long as the mod, too.

Posted by: ghastley Mar 7 2016, 09:35 PM

With the Dremora Heathfires mod looking close to completion, I need to re-visit my backlog of half-done mods and see what's ready to move on a bit.

Now I know a bit more about re-using voice files, I may be able to pick out some relevant lines to suit the Bear Riders, but the patrol issues may still be a show-stopper.

The alternate College outfits don't need any dialog, but there's still the issue of getting the Psijic variants. I may have those provided when they collect the Eye, instead of earlier when Quaranir stops time. But that implies a continuation of the quest line, so that the player can eventually get a set of properly enchanted Psijic Robes. I'd need to come up with more things that the Psijics would like the Archmage's help with. My Archmages tend to wear just the Amulet, anyhow. One benefit of the Psijics is that they're not in Skyrim, and so they can communicate non-vocally, with notes appearing mysteriously in the Archmage's quarters.

Post-TG quests such as re-opening Riftweald Manor might get released as stand-alone mods instead of trying to continue the quest line. The bigger picture would need extra dialog, with voice acting problems ensuing.

Markarth Arena is probably a bit too ambitious, and the mod I want to make (an architectural extension to Markarth where I can run a few extra quests) will not be what the general public expects. I had that problem with Hulk Out! where I made a "transform into a big Orc" mod, and everyone complained that the Incredible Hulk wasn't like that in the comics. Any Arena mod is going to be condemned if it doesn't pit the player against a set of victims, like the Oblivion one, because the word Arena just has too much baggage. I''l just use that for my own games.

Posted by: ghastley Oct 2 2017, 03:43 PM

Just adding to my catalogue of unfinished mods:

Smurf Hearthfires: I have the home, the location, the "during growth" models, and some Smurfs. My only idea for a triggering quest required the player to go to Solstheim, which isn't viable until level 20+.

Altmer Hearthfires: To use the Elven furniture I converted for the Markarth Arena mod. I've replaced part of a copy of Orotheim with a crystal cave using the Azura's star pieces, but the transition from gloomy cave sections to over-bright crystal is too much. That may just be because it's empty, and it's all bare crystal in that area. The original cave already had smithing stations, and the missing ones can be added. There's also a cave dining area, so the crystal part is just bedroom. Conversion to BYO could be complex.

Conina and friends: The Ghenghiz Cohen, Rincewind and Nijel the Destroyer characters need to be added somehow as NPC's, maybe replacing housecarl, bard, carriage driver for Lakeview, where the Salon replaces the Entryway. But they'd really need some fun dialogue, which is always an issue, because of voice acting.

Dwemer Bot: Needs a minimal cover-up for Bzuumz, using some more Bikini Armor pieces. And some Hand-to-hand balancing for her as an NPC. I think I have some scripts to avoid her swapping outfit, but a unique race for her may make that moot, as other gear would not apply. Hiring her from Mzthlft will re-use room rental dialogue.

Orc Stronghold Wise Woman: Most of this is done, but I have problems with the scene where she destroys Hervik's cursed mask. It just hangs up and won't finish. The dungeon needs a manual re-work of the nav-mesh, too, which is tedious. Again, it needs dialogue with voice acting, but at least that's for unique characters, not addition topics for existing ones.

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On top of these, the introduction of SKSE64 means I have a backlog of porting to SE. I've done Hulk Out! but haven't uploaded it yet. I'm not sure I want the XBox1 users to start whining that it's not like the comics.

Posted by: Sakiri Nov 2 2018, 10:05 PM

Here I thought this thread was about constantly redoing your mod list like I'm guilty of. I mod more than I play lol.

I need to check out your mods, man. They look fun.

Posted by: mALX Nov 2 2018, 11:26 PM

Ghastley's mods are amazing! (and tons of fun!)

Posted by: ghastley Nov 3 2018, 02:20 AM

There are plenty to choose from. I have 29 mods at the Nexus (but some are duplicates for both Skyrim editions), and a few that didn't get that far, but are playable. That includes one for Daggerfall.

They don't generally get a lot of downloads, because I make you work for your fun, like the Hearthfire mods that let you build your own Orc Stronghold, Argonian underwater home, Khajiit wagon, Bosmer vine-draped cave, or Dremora ruined tower. Most folk can't be bother building anything, they just want it ready-made.

Posted by: ghastley Jan 2 2020, 08:30 PM

Bump, just to remind myself what needs doing - still!

Orc Wise Woman for the Orc Hearthfires Mod. just needs some more scripting of the Dibella shrine, and the NPC recruitment added back from the steward logic in the original Hearthfires. Hunter, guard and smith arranged via WW in the same way that bard and driver were - with a bit more complexity to let the player choose gender. Needs a Voice Actor for Yarob, which obviously is the last part, as dialog is in flux until all the quests are done.

Succubus mod needs a lot more clutter added, and packaging. I may have a beta soon, which I'll port to SE, too. It may never appear on Nexus, as I'm getting a bit tired of entitled users there. Lacks voice acting for the Daedric Duo, anyway. I'm running it without, but a public release would need it.

A review of the Thieves Guild expansion to see if it could be done without any new dialog.

Posted by: Renee Jan 6 2020, 02:22 PM

I am assuming you take notes for a lot of things you make? Post those notes here, explaining how you made them. Even though I take my own notes for my own computer, posting them here helps me stay a lot more focused. I have to go through them more thoroughly, which makes them even more error-free.

Plus, if you post your methodologies here, some nooby like me can learn more stuff.

Posted by: ghastley Jan 6 2020, 03:07 PM

I made a start on converting this to SE, so Saki can test, but it's not going well.

The hair the succubi all wear has issues with textures. The normal map is not working, and the diffuse map is off. This is likely an effect of having o re-optimize nif's for the SE version.

Only half of the furniture animations work. A fresh install of FNIS made no difference.

I need to update the game and SKSE and get them in sync to use the XPMSSE skeleton, and if they don't jiggle, most of the point of the mod goes away. This could fix the animation issue, too.

Many of the scripts need recompiling on the SE release, and tracking them all down is a pain, even with a naming convention in place. The one on the pillory where Greta is imprisoned causes a crash whenever it's activated, which may again be a SKSE64 issue.

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@Renee When I have a coherent explanation of a modding topic, I tend to post it on my own site and put a link here, which does easily get overlooked. For example

http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/ModNotes/HearthfiresMods.html

http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/ModNotes/Furniture.html

My style is not a walk-through of what I did, as I prefer to explain how things work, rather than just say "do this and trust me". That does sometimes hold me back from posting, if I'm uncertain that I have a complete understanding. And again, sometimes I don't believe how something works, and it turns out to be a Bethesda error that just didn't get fixed, and they worked around it. An example of that is the revolving doors that are always installed upside-down, because the animations are wrong.

Posted by: Renee Jan 6 2020, 03:24 PM

I'll check out ghastley.org then. Maybe there's some stuff I can learn from there. Because you see, me not being as experienced as you, I'm always interested in reading modding stuff, especially quest stuff. Whenever I get some idea for a new quest mod especially, usually my idea goes beyond my learning. Which means I'll then have to turn to tutorials online. And guess what? Most of these tutorials (if they even exist) are on YouTube!

So let's say I have an idea, and hit some sort of roadblock. Bethesda's Creation Kit website or the Construction Set site don't have the info I need; I might literally be forging new territory. So I'll literally Google my idea, just to see what else is out there. Most of what I get are YT tutorials. Maybe I already know 90% of what the tutorial teaches, right? Do I really want to sit through the entire tutorial looking for that remaining 10%? Chances are, the YouTube video hasn't got what I'm looking for, anyway.

So that's why I like typing material, and typing it here, where I can easily find it. My memory is horrible. I can't always remember what I did in the past. My Notepad notes are scattered and hard for me to read sometimes. And maybe there's some random modder out there who is totally stuck, and is also looking for the info I'm posting.

Edit: WHOA you've got some good stuff on your own site! Nicely done.

Posted by: ghastley Jan 7 2020, 05:33 PM

I hate video tutorials, because the author sets the pace, and sequence. I prefer text ones (with pictures) so that I can go back and re-read sections easily, and skip over stuff I already know.

Is there stuff that anyone wants help with that I have done, but not explained? Usually I only produce a tutorial if I needed one myself, but couldn't find one, but I'm open to doing a few more.

Given my experiences recently with converting the Diablo Succubus mod to SE, I'll probably do one on how to fix the possible errors in converting. I suspect that most of my problems come from doing thing in the wrong sequence, but "start again and do it in the right order" isn't always best. I hope to write up something on how to recognize the problems, why they happen, and how to fix them.

It doesn't help that some parts of the SE CK are buggy. Doing too many FaceGen saves at once corrupts them, for example. I got a face paint added to all mine, and had to re-do them in smaller batches, or individually.

Posted by: Acadian Jan 7 2020, 05:46 PM

I'm with you, ghastley on much preferring text (with pictures if appropriate) for instruction instead of vids - for exactly the same reasons.

Posted by: ghastley Feb 28 2020, 03:50 PM

I hope all my old notes are enough for me to pick it all back up again. The constraints of ESO ae making my itch to take control with another Skyrim mod, so I may pick up making Severin Manor a Hearthfires (re)build.

Posted by: ghastley Aug 15 2022, 09:06 PM

I just started a review of which incomplete mods were close enough to be usable in their current state. For example the Red Witch was complete enough to use as a player home. But a few of them are not working the way they did when I put them on hold. In particular, the dancer and her musicians in the New Dragon Club have stopped doing their animations.

It will probably turn out to be the combination of mods loaded, but I am having issues with trying to track down the last working save. I have about forty different Bash profiles to hunt through, and hundreds of saves. Anyone know of any tools that could help? I most likely do not have a conflict, but a dependency I did not think existed, so I end up looking for a missing mod in the active list. It may have even been something of mine I deleted.

Edit: I changed the AI packages from TravelanduseIdle to plain Travel, and replaced the idle markers with XMarkerHeading. So now the package specifies the idle used, not the target marker. That fixed the musicians, and the dancer is probably an FNIS issue. So now I suspect that Steam delivered me a new bug during an update. Moving on …

Edit: I discovered that animation event names are no longer permitted to contain an underscore. Fixed that and the dancer is back in action. Actually, that is not precisely true. There are defined suffixes, such as _Entry and _Exit, that use the underscore. The restriction is probably because of parsing off those.

Posted by: ghastley Feb 13 2024, 07:54 PM

I may be having a relapse. I started designing a new Hearthfires mod in Apocrypha - Build Your Own Library.

Starts you in an Entryway reached by a Black Book, and you can build a Main Hall and a selection of wings from there. Doors between rooms are more portal books, like the chapter ones, so the wings don’t have to exist in the same place like the Skyrim ones, and they’ll be easier for me to construct. Housecarl is a librarian, of course.

Trying to come up with furnishings for which ruined books are needed.

All materials are gathered off-site, but that is not new. No need to change recipes for regular furnishings, but a few unique ones should be added. Mora shrine with a blessing is one.

Posted by: Acadian Feb 13 2024, 09:15 PM

Is there Apocraphobia Apocrypha in Skyrim?

Posted by: ghastley Feb 13 2024, 09:58 PM

Dragonborn DLC. Black Books send you there.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Feb 18 2024, 04:32 PM

It's a lot creepier and more claustrophobic than the ESO version, too.

Been playing Skyrim and revisiting old memories - and horrors, too.

Though my newest toon does not share the same aversion for Dwemer ruins/mechs as Alise does, she does have the heebie jeebies when it comes to Falmer.

And we've got Forgotten Vale coming up!

Posted by: ghastley Feb 27 2024, 04:41 AM

I will have to post a tutorial when I get the Black book working. I took a look at the only other mod that I could find that adds one, and they did it all wrong. You can’t simply replace a vanilla script, or anyone else doing it wipes out yours, by replacing the same one. On the positive side, I did borrow some of the layout of their place, although I replaced so much it’s hard to find.

Another tutorial may cover carrying animations. I want to have a waitress carry a tray of drinks around, instead of just standing in one place (for a different mod), and I want my Librarian to carry some books.