[X] My Assistant

[Renee]

Mod-making thread, basically. 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.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 25 2022, 07:36 PM

[Renee]

The Kill Quest, Map Markers, and X markers. Game: TES IV: Oblivion

This is another simple quest, but it’s very essential to know how to write a Kill, since it’s such a popular quest in any Bethesda game. We’ve got somebody who's either got a bounty on his/her head, or has stolen something valuable, or is just realy mean, or *insert reason here*. Bottom line is, our character gets a quest to hunt this NPC down, and get rid of him or her for good.

Fetch and Kill quests, as simple as they are, are essential to know because sometimes even the most elaborate quests out there will have a fetch or a kill buried in them. When we go to confront Mannimarco during the Main Quest for instance, there are all sorts of variables and other fancy things going on, but what does this portion of the Main Quest really boil down to?

A lot of the steps that are needed (such as making NPCs and items, how to start topics and quest stages) are steps which can also be found in the Fetch quest tutorial above, and other tutorials I've linked to. To save space, I won't repeat myself a whole lot.

The first video I linked to (with the British guy) is also a Kill quest. You can therefore watch that vid if you like, and follow along with a lot of the things I'm going to type here. However, the Brit's quest is extremely simplistic, while my version is going to be more comprehensive. I’m going to show you a few new tricks during my version.

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1). Start up the TES4 Construction Set, bla bla bla.

This time, you're going to make two NPCs, and that is all we'll need for a basic kill quest. If you've already made an NPC for the Fetch quest, this guy or gal can be your quest-giver again. Or, you can opt to make somebody who's totally new. If you have not made an NPC at all yet, you can follow the Fetch lecture up above, starting with Step 2. You can also have a look at the tutorials I've linked to.

1b). So make that quest-giver, if you haven't already.

TIP: Though we can use Bethesda NPCs to give out quests and rewards and such, sometimes they can be more difficult to work with, since they are not "blank slates," the way anybody we create will be. Sometimes, Beth NPCs have AI which causes them to roam around. Sometimes they’ll have quests and scripts associated with them, causing them to potentially be in places we don’t expect, doing things which conflict with what we’re trying to achieve. Sometimes Bethesda NPCs won't respond to the Priority rating our quest has, and so on.

… In the future (when you get confident and knowledgeable) you can begin to use Beth NPCs. But for now, it's better to work with somebody who is solely focused on whatever we write.

This kill tutorial is going to be focused in Skingrad, and I'm going to hide my NPC-to-kill in Cursed Mine, which is just west of SKingrad. If you've already made a quest-giver for the fetch quest, and placed him or her into Bravil (since this is what I did during the Fetch tutorial), you've now got several options. You can keep this quest-giver in Bravil and make a new one for Skingrad. Or, you can Cut (ctrl + X) the guy/gal you already made, and Paste him or her into some Skingrad cell, such as SkingradWestWealdInn, or SkingradTwoSistersLodge. Or you can just use the Bravil person, who sends you off to Cursed Mine. That final option is my favorite, I think. I always like long road trips.

2a). OBJECT window
Now to make the enemy. Since I'm placing my enemy into Cursed Mine, which is full of bandits, the easiest way to do this is to edit a generic NPC who is already a bandit. So in the Object window, click on Actors > NPC, and expand the NPC branch so you can see all the different races.

2b). To find a generic bandit, look into any races that bandits can possibly be in the vanilla game. So, this includes Argonians, Dark Elves, Khajiit, Redguards, and Wood Elves. Pick one of those races so that the Construction Set focuses on only this race.

There are still hundreds of NPCs listed, and to make this process simpler, we'll need to narrow down to only the bandits. In the GECK and Creation Kit, Bethesda got smart and included a search feature, but for the Oblivion Construction Set, there is no search. That is okay though...

2c). At the top of the Object window, you'll notice a bunch of tabs: Editor ID, Count, Users, Name ... and so on. Single left-click on Name.* This will organize all the NPCs listed in alphabetical order, from A to Z, according to their in-game names, or generic names. ... Well, some NPCs won't have a name at all, so you might be seeing a bunch of blank spaces at the top of the Name list. Just scroll downward, and you'll eventually see all the As listed. We'll need the Bs. Keep scrolling down until you start seeing Bs, and finally some Bandits.

* This can be done with any tab. If you single left-click the first time, this will organize all names from A to Z. Single left-click again, and now they'll be organized from Z to A. This can also be done with the Editor ID names, as well.

2d). Right-click > Edit on any generic bandit you'd like. So if you want your kill quest to feature an archer, you can locate one and edit him or her. Make sure to follow all the steps for making an NPC discussed so far in this thread, and in any tutorials I've linked to. Changing ID name is always the first essential step, and saving your NPC as a New Form is always the most important. Go ahead and play with Stats, Magic, Inventory, and so on.

Try to stay away from any generics that are associated with quests, or Shivering Isles. You will notice these because their ID names (not their in-game names) will often have nonsense letters and/or numbers associated with them. You might see something like MS09BanditMissleMale. MS09 is the name of the quest that generic will be associated with. Shivering Isles generics often have SE at the front of their ID names.

I'm not sure if any vanilla bandits are associated with specific quests or Shivering Isles, I'm almost certain some of them are associated with a few specific quests. Don't use these NPCs though, if you find any.

2e). Toggle "No Low Level Processing" off. We don't want that on for our enemy.

No Low Level Processing tells the game's engine to ignore NPCs if we're not in their cell, if it this selection is toggled on. If an NPC is associated with quests, or other specific functions in the gameworld, they'll need to have low level processing off so that the game knows to keep an eye on them, even when we're not around. But the engine doesn't need to know what all the generics are up to when we're not around. As far as the game's engine is concerned, these generics aren't even active until we're in their cell.

2f). Click onto your enemy's AI button, and have a look at what is in there. Typically, you'll see a couple of Wander packages: one for Exterior locations, and one for Interiors. These packages cause the enemy to wander randomly around, so you can keep these in there if you'd like, because they won't usually wander too far from where they've been placed. You might also see a Sleep package, or an Eat package. If you don't want your NPC to sleep or eat (which could make for too easy of a kill), go ahead and right-click > Delete these.

If you did edit a bandit, his/her Aggression will often be set to 100, which is fine. Almost all enemies have their Aggression set to 100.


3a). CELL + RENDER windows
Locate CursedMine01 and place your enemy in this cell, in the Render window. I tend to prefer putting kill-quest enemies into the very last possible location that I can find. This makes it so that we'll need to search for this enemy, dealing with all the others in front of him or her first. But if you want to just get this Kill quest over quickly, you can put your enemy into an initial room.

There are also CursedMine02 and CursedMine03, two other cells which go deeper underground. For now, just put your enemy into the first cell though. This will make it easier for me to teach you something later on.

3b). Have a look into your enemy's Faction tab. If you edited an actual bandit, he or she should already be in the BanditFaction. Continue to step 5, if so. But I will go ahead and show you how to add the enemy into this faction, if for some reason he/she is not a part of it.


4a). TES Construction Set main window
Make sure your enemy's Factions tab is selected. Now look at the main window, which is the window that's always below the Object, Cell, and Render windows. There's a bunch of choices on its toolbar: File, Edit, View, etc. Look for Character. Select this, and then double left-click on Faction... This will open up the Factions panel. On the left side of this panel are all the possible factions in the vanilla game. Scroll this down until you find the BanditFaction.

4b). Now left-click on BanditFaction and drag this into your enemy's Factions box.

4c). Click OK or Cancel on the Factions panel, and click OK on your NPC's panel, saving your enemy as a New Form, if you haven't done so already. There. Now your enemy is good to go, in any cell featuring other bandits.


5). QUEST window
Click on the main toolbar's Q button. Start a new quest in the Editor ID box. For this tutorial, I am calling it aaaKillQuest1.

6). QUEST DATA tab
All the things we did during the Fetch can be repeated here. So give your quest a name in the Quest Name slot, "A Bandit's Last Day" or whatever. Start Game Enabled stays on. Priority can be 60. GetIsPlayableRace == 1 goes in the Conditions box, along with GetPlayerInSEWorld == 0.

Optional: to add a little flair to your quest when it appears in your journal, click on the Icon button. This will send you into your game's Data > Textures > Menus > Icons folder. If you've got any mods in your game that add icons, you should have some icons and/or folders containing icons. Look for icons that are appropriate for your quest. For instance, since this is a Kill quest, you can use a picture of a weapon if you've got one. Double left-click on this item, so that an icon shows up (hopefully) on the Quest Data page. This icon will now also show up in your quest journals.

I have found that for some reason, some icons won't show up at all. If so, don't stress; all of this is optional.


7a). QUEST STAGES tab
I think the Brit in the video used two or three stages for his kill quest. I am going to use a total of six: 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. And again, you don't have to use 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100, but make sure there is some numerical space between whatever numbers you choose.

> Stage 0 is the pre-stage. Don't need to touch it at all.

>> Stage 5 is when the quest-giver first greets us, which leads to him or her giving an introductory spiel to what he/she wants us to do. Right-click into the top Log Entry box, but don't do anything further. It should say EMPTY in this box. Just leave it like that. By now, the quest-giver's initial greeting is done, and we've got a choice to click on a topic, which we haven't written yet.

>>> Stage 10 is when the quest-giver has told us all his worries (or her worries), leaving that burden on our shoulders. Great. Gee, thanks. Right-click > New into the top Log Entry box, and type something into the central Log Entry Box. "I have just met a person in need of my assistance. He has told me about a dangerous enemy living inside of Cursed Mine, just outside of Skingrad, and would like to know if i can kill this enemy." Something like that.

>>>> Stage 20 occurs after we have entered the proper cell where the enemy is hiding. Right-click > New into the top Log Entry box, and type something like "I am now inside of Cursed Mine. Gong by the smell, this place really is cursed..."

>>>>> Stage 50 occurs after we are I have decimated the enemy, rid him or her from existence. Something like, "I found the bandits' leader inside of Cursed Mine, and now because of me, he is dead. Time to head back to Bob, back in Skingrad. Sir Bobby will be pleased."

>>>>>> Stage 100 is the reward stage. "I have returned to Bob, and have been paid a measly three beers! I don't even like beer. I am never doing another job for Bob again!' ... whatever you'd like. As you can see, you can have some fun, and get creative with quest-writing if you'd like.


7b). Make sure Quest Completed is toggled on for that final stage, and in the Result Script box you'll type StopQuest aaaKillQuest1 to keep it from running forever and ever.


8a). RENDER window
Now I am going to show you folks something new: how to add a Map Marker. Again, I don't use quest targets, but I do like map markers. The NPC who gives us the quest can mark our map to let us know where to go. You might already know where Cursed Mine is of course, but we're just learning here.

If the Render window is still open with the cell you in which added your enemy, that's great. If not, search for that cell in the Cell window, which is CursedMine01 if you're strictly following this tutorial.

8b). Click into the Render window, and press A, so you can see better. We need to get outside of this cell, now. This is easiest if the cell only has one zone to get out of. This is why I chose Cursed Mine's first zone to add my enemy into; I want to be able to get out of this zone, so I can include this next trick.

8c). You'll need to find the entrance/exit door to Cursed Mine, or whatever cell you're working with. There are two ways to do this. You can physically click & drag (holding down your mouse wheel as you drag) the entire cell in the Render window, until you find that cell's entry door. Or you can look for any doors in the Cell window, and double left-click on them. Usually, the entry door will have the letters '01' at the end of its name.

Once you find this door, you should be seeing a yellow rectangle with a purple pointer on its top, sitting right next to the door. *PIC* This is called a Door Marker. If you don't see this marker, press M on your keyboard. This will cause any markers in the Render window to display.

8d). Now, double left-click on this Door Marker. It will ask you if you want to "View Door reference for this Door Marker?" which is a nerdy way of asking "Do you want to leave this cell?" Click Yes. And wait a moment while the exterior cell loads.

You are outside of Cursed Mine now, seeing an identical Door Marker. If you click on this one and say Yes, voila, you're back inside of Cursed Mine. This is how all Door Markers work.

8e). Zoom your mouse-wheel out. Start looking for any nearby Map Markers. Map Markers are similar to Door Markers, except they are red rectangles with lilac-colored pointers on them. *PIC* The Map Marker for Cursed Mine should be a few yards away from its entrance, slightly downhill. Most vanilla locations will already have their own map markers. If for some reason you can't find one, you can create your own.

If you see the map marker outside of Cursed Mine, go to Step 10a. If for some reason you can't find it (or just want to learn how to make these), continue to the next step.


9a). OBJECT window + RENDER window
In the Object window, go to the WorldObjects branch, and look for Static. Click on Static. Click on any item in the large right window now. Look for MapMarker. Now, click & drag this MapMarker into the Render window. You should see a red rectangular marker as linked above, which will probably be floating in the middle of space. Move it somewhere near the cell's entry door, and press F so it falls to the ground.

9b). Double left-click on the marker, so its Reference panel opens up. You'll want to give your marker a Reference ID name, such as CursedMineMapMarker or something similar. If there already is a CursedMineMapMarker (and there should be) somewhere nearby, yet you can't find it, the CS will scream at you that this "Form's ID is not unique!" ... Okay, whatever. Just rename your marker, since you can't find the original one.

9c). Click OK.


QUEST window > Quest Targets tab
We skipped this tab before, now I'm going to show you how to use it to make markers show up on the map, once we're back in-game, and doing this quest. We can also use this tab to make actual targets for actual items (such as people or fetchable objects) but I personally find this to be too hand-holdy. I can teach you how to make these sort of targets too, but not now.

10a). Anyway, make sure the Render window still shows that map marker, outside of Cursed Mine. Now, in the Quest Targets page, right-click > New into its top box, which is called Target Ref.

10b). In the central section of this page, which is called Quest Target Data, there is a button which says Select Reference in Render Window. Click on this button. Your mouse pointer will temporarily become an icon which looks like a Celtic cross, a + inside of a O. It will be also be red-colored.

10c). Move the Celtic cross over the map marker in the Render Window. It should turn white. Double left-click on your the Map Marker. The CS will now put the Quest window back on top, and you should be seeing the name of the Cell in which that marker is in, along with the map marker's Reference name. If you selected the official Bethesda Cursed Mine map maker, the Cell and Ref slots will say this..

Cell: CursedMineExterior
Ref: "MapMarker" 'CursedMineMapMarker'

TIP: In the future when working with Map Markers, if your Render window is not open to the actual location of the map marker you're trying to use, you can also search for it by choosing whatever cell the marker is in, and then choosing its Reference ID name. This process is more time-consuming though, since you'll need to remember which cell that marker is in. Exterior locations are tougher to locate than interiors are, which is one of the reasons I started inside of CursedMine01 instead of outside.

10d). We'll want this Map Marker to show up on our map, but only during Stage 10, when the quest-giver lets us know where the enemy can be found. So in the Conditions box, right-click > New (or press the New button) and add GetStage "aaaKillQuest1" == 10 here.


11). TOPICS tab
Now to write some dialog. You will need at least three GREETINGs, and one unique topic. I am calling the unique topic aaaKillTopic. To save space I'm not going into full detail here. If you need a memory-jogger on how to make GREETINGs and Topics, you can follow steps found above in the Fetch quest, starting from step 9a.

For the lessons below, I am calling my quest-giver aaaQuestGiver, though you can change this to whatever ID you actually used. Note that some of the text below is redundant, if you're using the same quest-giver that you used for the Fetch quest. If this NPC already knows our character, you can type in stuff appropriate for this. "Hey, I remember you" instead of "You look like a capable adventurer..." My Kill Quest-giver is a different guy, though.

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First Greeting = "Hello, you look like a capable adventurer, might you be able to help me with something?"

GetISID "aaaQuestGiver" == 1 AND
GetStage "aaaKillQuest1" < 5

Result Script box: Player.SetStage aaaKillQuest1 5

AddTopic box: add your unique topic here. So I am gping right-click into this box > Add Topic > aaaKillTopic.

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Second Greeting = "You are back. Have you been to Cursed Mine yet?"

GetIsID "aaaQuestGiver" == 1 AND
GetStage "aaaKillQuest1" == 20

Note: Again, you can make your quest-giver's dialog ultra-snarky, if he/she is not pleased that we have been to Cursed Mine, yet haven't killed that wanted bandit. Toggle Goodbye on, and change their facial expressions appropriately.

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Third Greeting = "You have returned! And due to my magical talisman, I already know the bandit leader is dead! Here, have some beers on me!"

GetIsID "aaaQuestGiver" == 1 AND
GetStage "aaaKillQuest1" == 50

Result Script box: Player.SetStage aaaKillQuest1 100

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12). Now, go to your unique topic. This is the one I called aaaKillTopic in my own build.

aaaKillTopic = “Yes, there’s a fellow who’s been causing some trouble here in Skingrad,” bla bla bla “...and I happen to know he’s been living in Cursed Mine. Here, I will mark it on your map. Will you help me?”

GetIsID "aaaQuestGiver" == 1 AND
GetStage "aaaKillQuest1" == 5

Result Script box: Player.SetStage aaaKillQuest1 10

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Click OK, closing the Quest window, and save your work, please.


13). OBJECT window
So… we’ve bumped the quest from 0 to 5 via dialog, and done the same thing from 5 to 10, and 50 to 100. But what about 10 to 20? And 20 to 50?

In the Object window, look for WorldObjects > Static > and look for Xmarker in the Editor ID box. You'll only have to type the letter X, and there it is.

14a). RENDER window
If your Render window is still showing the exterior of Cursed Mine, we'll now need to get back inside. Double left-click on the yellow Door Marker near the place’s entrance, and select Yes.

14b). Back inside of Cursed Mine, where that wanted enemy’s been hiding, that bastard. Move a bit into the cell, by holding your mouse wheel and dragging.

14c). Left-click on the Xmarker in the Object window, and drag it into the cell. This marker will look like a red X once it’s in that cell.

14d). Press F so it falls to the floor. Position this X somewhere onto the cell’s floor, so that it's easy to click on. It doesn’t really matter where it lands. I like putting it where it's easy to click, though. I like putting it where there isn't too much other stuff nearby.

14e). Double left-click on the Xmarker, opening up its Reference panel. Give the Xmarker a Reference ID name. I am calling my Xmarker aaaCursedMineXMarker, and then I am immediately copying (ctrl + C) this name, so I can paste it into a script we're about to write. Copying complicated Reference names so you can paste them later is a good habit to get into, by the way.

... By default, all Xmarkers are also references, and all references can be used by the game's engine to trigger during quests. This is why the Persistent Reference toggle is greyed-out. We don't even have a choice to turn this off.

14f). Click OK.


15a), QUEST window > Quest Data tab
Click Q on the CS’s main toolbar, opening up the Quest window, and select its Quest Data tab if it’s not already selected.

15b). Time to write a script for the Xmarker. Click on the [...] button, opening up the script editor.

Note: This editor (unlike the editor we used for that Fetch item) has the power to control any object, spell, or quest function in the game, that is associated with this quest. It is like the queen on a chessboard, which often has a greater immediate reach in-game than Object scripts do.

15c). Click on Script > New, and type in the following…

scriptname aaaKillQuest1Script

Begin GameMode

If (Player.GetDistance aaaCursedMineXMarker <= 400)
If (Player.GetStage aaaKillQuest1 == 10)
SetStage aaaKillQuest1 20

EndIF
EndIf

End

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This means: when your character enters Cursed Mine, and gets close enough to this Xmarker (less than 400 feet, or at 400 feet), the quest will move from Stage 10 to Stage 20, and we'll get that update saying "I have now entered Cursed Mine....etc." This Xmarker will ONLY do this though, IF the character is at Stage 10 of aaaKillQuest1 (if the character has been given this quest, by speaking to the quest-giver). Without those If and EndIf conditions in place for the quest stage especially, we could go into that cell at any time, and we’d automatically be at Stage 20, for a quest which we did not even begin yet, see?

Tip: You can change the distance that the Xmarker triggers, by changing 400 to 500, or whatever number you’d like. I wouldn’t go too small though, unless you’re putting your marker in an area with a confined entry passage, ensuring that your character will pass near it. The downside is, your character must get near enough for the Xmarker to trigger, otherwise the quest won't update. But this is why it's important to put your Xmarker into an initial area of the cell, and also an area which is not too wide, so that the character will definitely walk near it.

15d). Before saving this script, look at the Script Type scroll-bar. By default, this will be set to Object. There are three choices we can make in this bar though: Object, Quest, and Magic Effect. We’ll want to set it to Quest. This is VERY important.

...If this bar is still set on Object, and you close/save it before changing this to Quest, your script will then disappear into the Construction Set. You will be able to find it, but finding it creates unnecessary steps. If you happen to make this mistake (and don't feel bad, I've made it a bunch of times) you'll need to click on the Pencil icon, on the main window's toolbar. Your script will be somewhere in this huge list of others. Locate it, open it up, and change its Script Type to Quest.


16). Again, you won’t be able to find your script right away if you try to search for it in the scroll-bar, even if it is set to Quest. Click OK on the Quest window (closing it) and save your work. Now, reopen the Quest window. The script should be in the scroll-bar now.

17a). OBJECT window
Now to make sure the quest bumps from 20 to 50. How do we do this? Find your enemy NPC in the Object window, and open his or her information up.

17b). Click on the [...] button, Script > New, and we’re going to type the following.

-------
Scriptname aaaKillBanditScript

Begin OnDeath

If (player.GetStage aaaKillQuest1 == 20)
SetStage aaaKillQuest1 50
EndIf

End
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And that script obviously triggers the script to move from 20 to 50, once your NPC enemy gets killed. Now.... it does not matter how the enemy gets killed, whether he falls down a mine shaft, walks into a blade trap, or whatever. But that’s why I recommended Cursed Mine; there aren’t any traps or mine-shafts in Cursed Mine.

So there we have it. The entire kill quest has been written up, but oops! We have not rewarded the character yet.


18), QUEST STAGES tab
Go to your final stage. For me this is 100. In the Result Script box there should already be a StopQuest command here if you typed this in earlier. Right above or below this command, you can type

Player.AddItem DrinkBeer X

with X being whatever number you’d like. But again, I was being silly there. You can award your character with whatever item(s) you find in the Object window, basically. I awarded my character three beers during my Kill Quest, just to add a little humor into it. Substitute Gold001 instead of DrinkBeer, if you'd like more of a serious reward.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 24 2018, 12:22 AM