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]

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.

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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.

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.

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. ⚠ 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