GothGirlDanielle

Thanks for the help. I think I diagnosed the problem. What happened is this: I needed some meshes from the Oblivion.bsa archive. I was tired, it was 3:00 a.m., and I wasn't thinking too much about what I was doing. Using OMM, I un-archived the entire directory into my current install which includes 210 mods. Now everything is messed up. Sigh. @ WhoGuru: Yes, Wrye Bash does let you do that, but you still use the same directory. At least, I think so - I haven't explored this too much. One more thing I need to learn how to do. @ Echonite and Khettienna: Thanks for the info. Apparently I have the ability to bork things up even when others can't. It's a talent. What can I say? I can't find mTES4 - it's been removed from TESNexus by the author. All the links I've seen are dead. So when you use the directory rename method: installing Oblivion once, twice, maybe even three times. You install the game, rename the Oblivion directory to "Oblivion 01" or whatever, then reinstall the game. When you want to switch the game, you just switch rename the directories. Doesn't that mess up programs like OMM and Wrye Bash? ~ Dani ~

Somehow I've messed up my Oblivion install and might have to reinstall the entire game. This would suck since it's the second time this year I've had to do it; the first occurring after I dropped my MacBook Pro down a flight of stairs and had to get a new one. Do you mod directly over your game or how do you do it? My research suggest that while multiple installs are not possible, there is a batch file switcher fix (and I know nothing about building batch files). Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. ~ Dani ~

Wow, thanks for the link but that, for now, that's a bit over my head. I read enough of it to get the general idea, though, so thanks for posting it. I thought I had become familiar with the CS in designing my dungeons. I have made extensive use of this site and the Wiki but, unfortunately, some discussions produce as many questions as they answer. One gnawing concern I have is that my dungeons don't always have some of the editor markers and other items that are included in Bethesda's dungeons, so they look "wrong" to me. Sometimes it's frustrating to spend hours or so trying to solve a problem or answer a question everyone else just knows. Early in my dungeon design, I wanted to place crypt nameplate activators in my catacombs. The player comes along, sees the plaque or tomb marker, mouses over it, and a message box appears with the text you might read on such a marker. Really basic stuff, right? Except it took me longer to figure out how to make the activators (including linking to Bethesda's meshes) than it did to create 121 unique tomb plaques. Sometimes not knowing is very frustrating; and the answers aren't always easy to find, even with search fields. Hence, the questions (and I do appreciate the answers). Okay, I see. Hanaisse's links explained that the chances isn't always accurate (which explains one of the problems I was having) - and to make the situation more complicated, I play FCOM which seriously modifies leveled lists and makes balancing a bit of guess work. Since FCOM adds a bit of randomness already, using the random returns makes for a very wide range of possibilities. For now, I won't worry about them unless more range is obviously necessary. Sorry again if my questions are obvious, but I really do appreciate the help. ~ Dani ~

Thank you, that was one of the most helpful posts I've read. I'm working with this a bit, but I may have some more questions later. But thanks for pointing that out to me. ~ Dani ~

Several questions as I try to fine tune my dungeons: Question 1: For some reason, all my container locks are set to very easy. This is despite having the "Lock" tab set to leveled. Also, the chests are full of roughly a dozen LL (leveled list) items that could appear in the chest, but very few of them actually are appearing. I've tested this three times and it's widespread through several dungeons. On the other hand, my leveled list creatures do seem to be working and I'm getting the right kind of creatures depending on my level. To test leveling, I'm using the "player.setlevel" cheat. Question 2: I think I understand leveled lists and how they work. For example, in a basic leveled list like "LL1SkeletonMissile100", one of four creatures will appear, depending on your level. So, at level 12, a Skeleton Hero appears. What's confusing me a bit are the two check boxes: "Calculate for each item in count" and "Calculate from all levels <= PC's level." My question is: If the levels are not inclusive (so you don't get a skeleton AND a skeleton hero - and from the preview and testing, it appear not), then what effect to these options on the returned LL? Example: so using a preview level of 21 and a preview count of 12 (I assume twevle text examples), my result is 8 Skeleton Heros or 4 Skeleton Champions, making the ratio 2/3 in favor of Skeleton Heros. Do these choices effect that return and how? Question 3: I notice that Bethesda has provided several leveled list with a percentage of return (25, 50 or 75). Again, the mechanism here seems obvious: there's a 25 percent return on the leveled or a 1/4 in chance a monster will appear. My question: Many of these have never been used in the game. Is there something wrong with them? Question 4: Root Havok. These yellow boxes make roots move, right? Thanks for any help. Sorry if my questions are obivious. ~ Dani ~

Thank you so much! I'll play with this a bit tonight. ~ Dani ~

Okay, sorry to retun to bug your forum again. I've been working away happily (and not so happily) on my mod, learning a lot, making a bunch of mistakes ... the usual. I've tried to answer as many questions as I can on my own without bugging everyone here. But I can't figure out Collison Boxes and other activators (those colored frame boxes that appear in dungeons) ... (the dungeon tutorial on TES wiki makes no reference to them that I can see). I've designed 18 dungeons, complete with pathing (yes, those little red and blue diamonds are burned into my retinas), light and shadow bulbs, sound, monsters, and clutter (tested using the havoc button). Then I started comparing mine to Bethesda's and I realized I didn't use any of those yellow wire frame Collision Boxes. Almost every dungeon has them, and I'm can't figure out what they do and if I need them. Example: If you open Fort Nikel in the TES, you will see several distributed throughout the fort. The yellow ones are marked: "CollisonBox01". There is also a green on marked: "TrigZonePLAYER01Enable". All appear to be some kind of activator, since each has a reference (and one of the references is a stool??) I'm assuming, by deduction, that all this has something to do with the fight that occurs in the dungeon. Player enters dungeon, enters "trigzone" (trigger zone?) and triggers the fight that always takes place in the dungeon. There are also orange frame boxes that, I believe, manage things like fog, etc. Can someone point me to reference on these boxes with, hopefully, some suggestions on how to use them? Or am I left to my own devices? Or am I asking a really basic, newbie question? Thanks, ~ Dani ~

DarkRider: Thanks for the answers. That helps a lot. The only thing that wasn't clear is what are the orange points for? And if blue is preferred and quest related - I assume like following Baurus through the sewers - then should I use them for general dungeon design? Or can I use them to set ambushes? Example: in a two level dungeon (one with a balcony) I can path in blue to balcony and at least one NPC will stay in that area, creating the possibility of an attack from overhead. As for spacing - as tempting as it is to space them wider apart, I'm following Bethesda's spacing, at least during my learning stage. So, as a general statement, for most non-quest related pathing, it simply serves to give the enemy NPC something to do while waiting for a player attack? Do I need to anything else, like set a schedule? And how does that work with spawn points? Scheduling, that is. Do you set schedules for enemy NPCs, such as unique bosses? Sorry for all the questions. ~ Dani ~

World building and texturing were exactly the two I looked at ... Okay, I read both of those and thank you for posting them. I really do appreciate it. Glad to know about the control button issues. But I need to go a bit deeper. Maybe advance advanced pathing. So I'm going to ask some questions (sorry): (1) I like the train track metaphor in the advanced tutorial. Is that dead-on accurate? Do the NPCs only follow the yellow paths? It seems like Bethesda Pathing Theory (which I've discerned merely by looking at ten or so dungeons ... ... so, yeah, theory) is to cover the floor space completely (well, avoiding furniture and walls). This coverage is usually done with the same triangular approach used in both of DarkRider's tutorials. In a triangle, will the NPC wander into the triangular area or just follow the grid. What about when they're attacking? (2) For larger dungeons, long hallways, things like that, is there a faster way to lay the pathing points? Something like CTL-D? Several of my dungeons will require hundreds of pathing points. (3) The "My First Dungeon" tutorial makes reference to "preferred pathing". I notice the blue (or peferred) pathing points or nodes in Bethesda dungeons, primarily on stairs. Often, they just have the one line going up the stairs. Does this mean only one NPC can go up the stairs at a time? Also, I'm assuming if you use a blue path, you shouldn't use a red path in the same area. (4) This may seem obvious, but do NPCs stop every time they hit a red point? Also, does pathing apply to Goblins and other creatures? I'm assuming yes, but I thought I'd ask. (5) What if you, say, screwed up your pathing because you didn't know what you were doing and you want to start over? How do you delete an entire grid without deleting the stuff in your dungeon? (6) I know you can link pathing nodes to traps. Can you link them to gates and doors in dungeons? Both are activators. So if you link you nodes to a gate in a dungeon, and the gate isn't raised, the NPC won't walk into it. If the gates is raised, they'll walk out. (7) I notice both tutorials make reference to dungeons without pathing (and, ironically, lazy modders). But one page I read indicated NPCs can "ignore" pathing. So does pathing force an NPC to follow a track (like a train)? And what influences an NPC to ignore pathing? And (sorry ... questions) do NPCs follow pathing when attacking. Thanks for the help. ~ Dani ~

Great! Thanks for the both of those links. I tried looking at some of the tutorials here on this forum, but I kept seem messages like: "Thread reserved for future tutorial." Or words to that effect. After a couple of failures, I quit looking. Sorry. ~ Dani ~

Okay, I have several dungeons made and I'm working on pathing. I've read what I can find on the subject but it's usually included in another, larger tutorial (e.g. My First Dungeon on the CS Wiki). I've read several references to how hard it is and how you have to be careful, but no one really what you have to be careful for. Or maybe I'm just missing it. Any suggestions on a good pathing tutorial? Or how pathing works. I mean, do the NPCs follow the red dots or do they wander in the triangles or what? I can copy what Bethesda does but I'd like a better understanding of how it works. Right now, I'm thinking that you want to cover all flat floor space with pathing triangles. Also, you don't want pathing to cross traps (or do you)? Basically, I need suggestions (and tips) on how to make pathing a success. Thanks for any help. ~ Dani ~

Thank you. Thank you. I think I need to go read some basic ncp scripting tutorials, just to get oriented. ~ Dani ~

Fair enough. Perhaps I should have said limited by my knowledge of the Construction Set. I assume SAA is a script command? Thanks. Dani Right, I'm really just making your mod. By custom shaders you mean a recoloration of the ghost shaders? On the multiple editors: ~ Duh!! ~ I knew that. It just got dropped somewhere in my mind. ~ Dani ~

This question is serious and has two parts. You don't have to be an expert at modding to voice an opinion. The premise: Someone is "cursed" or "blessed" with eternal life. They are not an evil undead. Unwilling undead, wold be more like it. In other words, until the curse/blessing is lifted, they will not die. Once it is, they die immediately. They are not vampires. As long as they are in possession of a certain artifact, they will live. Losing the artifact, they die immediately. Or something like that. Also, they will be in a tomb and cannot leave, And they've lived in these tombs since the end of the First Era, Oblivion time. Now, how does that look. Their bodies wouldn't rot; that would defeat the curse/blessing. It would be more of a loss of energy, a loss of life force. They wouldn't need to eat or anything else since that need would be contraction to the curse/blessing. Frankly, I'm tied up in artistic/technical knots over this issue. That's Part I. Part II are the limitations of the TES Construction Set. While I'm not certain what says eternal life to me, I do know I want it to look realistic. You may be thinking: "Dani, what does it matter? Just make 'em look like normal NPCs. Didn't you ever read LotR?" Yes, but I want something surreal. Something that will give the player pause. I made all possible/known solutions. Here's what I came up with: 1. I could may them talking skeletons. Blah. 2. I could use the "undead Akaviri" ghost solution. Sigh. Nothing new here. 3. I could just make them normal but evergreen NPCs, in a Sean-Connery-Highlander kind of way. Boring. 4. I could give them some kind of light "glow". Nice. The player enters an ancient, darkened dungeon and there's a walking light bulb. 5. I could remake textures to add rotting noses, long grey hair, ultra-wrinkly faces. Entertaining as that would be .... not working for me. 6. I'd like something .... wraith-like. Can you make NPCs fade ... like a Photoshop transparency adjustment? So the player would literally see them, but see through them, too. One solution might be to cast them in a tinted color - like a light spell only colored ... like an aura or a dispersion of energy. Once I have a solution, I can set light and shadow in the tombs to create a surreal effect. I bet I've watched 50 YouTube videos, I've search IMDB, read a gazillion internet suggestions for eternal life, but I can't decide how these people should look. If anyone has any suggestions at all, I'd love to hear them. I don't care how off the wall they are. Maybe I can make something with it. ~ Dani ~ Edit: Completely unrelated question: can you run multiple copies of the Construct Set for Oblivion like you could for Morrowind? Thanks. ~ D ~

Thank you for the tip! I just tried it and it works great. ~ Dani ~

Brief description of the problem: I need to build ten tombs, each with a crypt inside. The tombs/crypts were built at the time of Reman Cyrodill. So I thought: I'll just use the Sancre Tor Tomb resources to build my tombs. I'm referrig to the static resources Bethesda created for the Tombs of the Reman Emperors cell. The problem is Bethesda designed that particular dungeon in a linear way with a minimal amount of resources. For example, there are no corner or angle elements, nor are there any simple ceiling elements. So every "room" has at least four corners. Some rooms have sides to make them larger. Interior corners are created by using ... corners, obviously. Exterior corners are created by putting two sides at a 90 degree angle with a ceiling piece slipped in the corner. The corner/ceiling pieces can't exist in any place I can find them. The sets I'm talking about are: STShrine... STCrypt... Basically, if you use these sets, your limited to the same basic Bethesda dungeon design. Has anyone tried to use these elements in a dungeon design and discovered a work around or additional resources? Are there any resources on the install discs? Edit: I also discovered I have a similar problem with the Shrine builds - they can only be put together one way. ~ Dani ~

Sweet .... My life just got a little easier. Thank you . ~ Dani ~

Thank you all. I did not know we could adjust the grid and settings but now I do. Thank you. @ DarkRider: Your picture does not look like mine. So I've been trying to set my dungeon levels consistent with the parent dungeon and Bethesda levels (so a lower dungeon would be 200 "feet" below), becasue I was afraid the "depth" of the dungeon would somehow effect the in game map. But starting at 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 would be much easier. So depth levels have no effect? What about the North marker? How critical is that to get perfect? ~ Dani ~

I'm working with the Imperial Fort dungeon set (the RF.... series). For awhile now, I've noticed that not all the pieces snap into place like they should. In particular, the RFRmCornerDoors (small doors in the corner of rooms) don't fit nicely with the narrow hallway elements - and, in fact, don't really fit cleanly with any of the elements. Also, I tried to swap out a wall in one of the Pale Pass Dungeons and when I tried placing a new element, it was just a bit off, not snapping into place cleanly. If it's just one or two pieces, I can place them by hand (toggling off the grid and angle buttons). But if it's the entire wing of a dungeon ... This little problem has already lead to design changes in my dungeons - which I dislike. I'm wondering if I'm just doing something wrong? If I look at the Bethesda dungeons, they seem to make them work, but are they placing each piece by hand? Any help would be really appreciated. ~ Dani ~

Well, he will tell you IN CAPS how he won't play your mod!! (with exclamation points) And I was okay with that. It wasn't until he suggested I was fullfilling some macho fantasy .... egghh .... boys. Okay, I was going to claim ownership it the stuff so people couldn't sell it back to me, but I'll just leave it alone. I did forget to make him a member of the Blades ... oops. Okay, that takes care of it. Thank you so much for your help. ~ Dani ~

No, it's not you. It's been a long night. Earlier tonight, I was blasted on the other forum by a guy for suggesting that I might disable the green arrow. His comments just put me in a crappy mood ... I'll stick my merchant on the smithy end and I can move him later if there's any kind of conflict. My merchant crates are going under the floor, obviously. What about ownership of the various weapons and stuff? ~ Dani ~

Sigh. Okay, fair enough. My smith is there, essentially, to sell a replica set of StarX's katanas. Perhaps a patch could simply add the Katanas to your merchants inventory? Mod info. I was going to place an artifact in Sancre Tor, something related to Reman Cyrodill and starting the quest. ~ Dani ~ Edit: Just curious, did you change all the ownership of the armor and stuff lying around to your merchant? I was thinking about doing that, just because it seems like a bit of a cheat to add a merchant, then let the player sell him all that stuff ... ~ D ~

Yes, I was thinking about that. The video was extraordinary. Who did the narration? That voice and the music were perfect. I suppose I could rewrite my mod so that the Sancre Tor element was taken out. The merchant in Cloud Ruler would be a little harder .... ~ Dani ~

Why was I afraid of that? The, uh, Reclaiming Sancre Tor part. Just 'cause my mod involves Sancre Tor ... too. Thanks for the tip. @ WillieSea: Just saw your note. Thanks for the info. Now I'm thinking .... ~ Dani ~