Need help w/ quest mod making

[freewaydog]

Where is a good place to start learning how to make quest mods? I eventually want to learn to add more content to this mod, which somebody else made. However, tbh, I am not ready for such a project yet, I guess I need to learn the basics 1st of scripting, dialogue, adding silent mp3 files & lipmoving, etc.

[DarkRider]

There is a Basic questbuilding guide here on TESA:

And several more on the wiki that are quite good, here are a few I've used:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Dialogue_Tutorial

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Quest_Tutorial

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/A_beginner%27s_guide%2C_lesson_4_-_Anatomy_of_a_quest%2C_part_1

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/A_beginner%27s_guide%2C_lesson_5_-_Anatomy_of_a_quest%2C_part_2

We hope to be revamping the questbuilding class here soon, but these should get you started and more, Good Luck

[freewaydog]

WOW thanks, Darkrider! Lingwei is the guy that made the Blackwood Co. gang mod I just finished & also the Sirens one that I did & sent!

(What I mean is I played through the mods, not made them. The sirens one is the one in the hyperlink above in my original post thread here.)

Edited August 13, 2010 by freewaydog

[Mishaxhi]

I just followed the guide on here and ended up making a huge quest mod

I reccomend learning dialog first, as some basic quests rule solely through that, then basic scripting, AI and eventually lip syncing

[freewaydog]

Thanks, Mis!

[freewaydog]

Ok, I started to do this tut that you mentioned above, thanks, but w/ the "AI" for the questgiver, it says to put one of the "default wandering" thing in. Which one should I put? & also, what if I don't want him to wander altogether? Should I just leave the AI blank?

[DarkRider]

All NPCs carry a wander package as a fallback to give them something to do if there are gaps in their specialized AI routines. Wander packages have a selected radius, it's not like they will wander far, just move around the room a bit, so it's good practice to have one at the bottom of the stack. You can drag/drop any wander package from the list of packages into your NPC's AI list (remember not to make changes to a package's details unless you change the ID name and create a new pack)

[freewaydog]

The wander packs are very hard to choose from! I mean, is the questgiver supposed to be a home owner? A home resident? An explorer? Which wander pack should I give him? I mean, what does it all mean? Wouldn't it be easier if I have him just stay put???? & also, don't even get me STARTED on how I could not comprehend this tut! Certainly not past the point where I made the door! Hell! I could not even figure out which interior this person used! I could not find anything that looked like this:

Please help me! I so want this to work!

Edited August 15, 2010 by freewaydog

[vometia]

The wander packs are very hard to choose from! I mean, is the questgiver supposed to be a home owner? A home resident? An explorer? Which wander pack should I give him? I mean, what does it all mean? Wouldn't it be easier if I have him just stay put????

Things like home owner (and resident, and so on) are specialist packages to ensure houses are locked up at night: if your NPC's not in their own house by default (or a lodger in someone else's or whatever) then you don't need them. If in doubt, just choose one of the aaaDefaultExplore packages, choosing Current or Editor depending on whether or not your character normally hangs out at their location in the Construction Set.

I'd normally chose aaaDefaultExploreEditorLoc1024 as a safe default; I'd often prefer to use the -3000 version because of its wider radius but it has "skip fallout behaviour" checked which may or may not be what you want.

A default wander package is good, though: they'll just stand there doing nothing at all otherwise which I think feels a little artificial.

[freewaydog]

Thanks, Vometia. But, what is the "3000 version" & what does "skip fallout behavior" mean?

[vometia]

They're normally numbered according to the radius in which the character will wander from their location; 3,000 units is quite a lot, since the large "blocks" that build, say, castle and cave interiors and so on are 512x512 units in size.

"Skip fallout behaviour" means not doing something directly related to their current quest or activity such as stopping for a chat with another NPC about mudcrabs while they're on their way somewhere, for example. I'm not entirely sure what (if any) effect it might have on a "wander" package since it seems that chatting with other NPCs is part of its purpose, but it's left me feeling slightly leery of using it.

From what I've seen, characters in fairly large open spaces where you want them to mingle, e.g. the Market District, may prefer larger radii than those who tend to mooch about in an indoor area somewhere. It's really your decision how far you want them to wander, though in my opinion even a limited wander is better than just having them stand in the same spot doing nothing...

[freewaydog]

Ok, then what is the smallest number that I should pick for them to wander? I don't want them wandering TOO far,...Also, I cannot find that interior that I showed for the other tut.

Edited August 15, 2010 by freewaydog

[vometia]

I'd probably suggest something like aaaDefaultExploreEditorLoc512 as a good start: it'll keep them in approximately the same location but will stop them being completely inert. See how it goes: if it's too big or too small then try something else, and if there isn't already something else, create your own custom package! But if you do the latter, take care not to alter one of the existing packages as it may have undesirable effects elsewhere. I normally prefix new stuff of my own creation with my initials to make sure it doesn't conflict with anything, which has the added bonus that it's easier to find when I want it.

[freewaydog]

Yeah, I am renaming the npc as it says to in the tut.

[freewaydog]

Why is it that when I try to adjust the hair & then save it, my cs crashes? I mean, how frustrating is that? You know? Please help me! It seems no matter what I do, I adjust the hair, I click save or ok, then the cs crashes, then I need to go in all over again each & every time!!!! What am I doing wrong?

[freewaydog]

Please answer! I really need for my cs not to crash.

[vometia]

Hopefully someone else will have something useful to offer: personally I don't know the reason unless it's a bad egm or tri file from an imported hair pack. But crashing is something that CS just does anyway, unfortunately, and a lot of people have had it eat swathes of their work on occasion. If it works okay with standard hair models, you could use those in CS and change them after you've saved and exited using something like TES4Edit.

[freewaydog]

I just tried it again & it crashed again! What, I can't touch the hair? I am beyond frustrated! I don't think it matters whether I use "standard" hair, or whatever hair! It just crashes w/o any explanation! I STILL do not know what I am doing wrong!!!!!!

[vometia]

I've occasionally had corrupted BSA files, which is a possibility, even though by saying that I feel I'm rather scraping the barrel for ideas now. Does the hair look okay in-game? Do you have anything besides Oblivion.esm loaded as a master?

[freewaydog]

I have this tut mod loaded, which was one of the links recommended to me above & I am up to the part where it says to adjust the hair & it is NOT working for me! I keep getting knocked off the cs! I am beyond angry now! I do not know what to do! Can anyone help me? I know somebody here must indeed know the answer here! It would be great if someone answered that would know!

Edited August 18, 2010 by freewaydog

[DarkRider]

Okay, first thing's first...calm down mate. Seriously, this is supposed to be fun, and yes there can be challenges but getting irate and venting it here will not get you anywhere and it's kind of a turn off for helpers who don't like to feel like crisis negotiators talking you off a ledge.

A few deep breaths later, there are a number of things that could be going wrong. If you are using Win7 as your OS you need to load the full preview of the model before opening the tab to change the face and hair or you will crash. If you can get to that tab okay without crashing, it is likely not a bug. Would most likely be a mod you have installed that alters hair. When you are working on this mod, do you have other mods loaded in the CS? Or just the Oblivion.esm and your active mod?

[freewaydog]

I don't have any hair mods up when I use the cs, only the oblivion esm + the mod I am working on as my "active file". I did the preview thing and it worked, thanks. I must remember that from now on. Ok, so now that I am past that, can you please tell me what this means?

Edited August 18, 2010 by freewaydog

[DarkRider]

You need to add a space after StopQuest before your quest name.

Glad you got the crashing sorted, I have to remember that trick as well.

[vometia]

I'll also bear that in mind when I inevitably experience the same thing at some point!

At the moment I tend to do it in the opposite order (which I should point out I'm NOT recommending to freewaydog!) because I find that the full render screen often doesn't work if you load up too much stuff, such as using CS to peruse the effects of Bashed Patch for instance: the full render screen fails more often than not in those circumstances, either displaying a disturbingly distorted version of the NPC who may appear stretched and/or inside out, but more often than not, nothing at all until about the fifth or sixth time you re-open the character window. But I'm only saying this by way of prattling on about how much I love Construction Set's bugs and it has nothing to do with DarkRider's much more sensible recommendation. I'd use the 3GB option except that I don't think it works with OBSE.

[freewaydog]

You need to add a space after StopQuest before your quest name.

Glad you got the crashing sorted, I have to remember that trick as well.

Thanks. I did not notice a space in the tut.

Edited August 18, 2010 by freewaydog