papyrus How did you start to learn scripting/making mods?

[Mister X]

Heyho,

I play Skyrim modded for years now, but never created a mod myself.

Still, I don't plan to create new items/armors/anything related to painting or meshing as I'm not that kind of creative person. I want to learn Papyrus and create addons with new actions/quests/....

 

So my question is: how did you start learning Papyrus specifically and how to work with the CK? I'm already able to code rudimentary stuff (little Arduino projects mainly), so I know how to use stuff like variables, loops or conditions.

[Blackbird Wanderer]

I was you 16 months ago.  I started by altering someone else's mod, then kept building from there and taught myself Papyrus, mainly through the tutorials on the Bethesda/CK website.  That, and a whole lot of tenacity and determination.

 

In the end it comes down to what you want your mod to do.  I would recommend starting simple (though I ended up jumping into the very deep end), as it can otherwise be pretty overwhelming.  Altering objects is straightforward.  Altering dialogue and AI Packages can get very convoluted.

 

Best of luck and PM me if you need specific help and it's within my knowledge base.  I'm still on a steep learning curve, but always willing to pay it back for all the help other people have given me in developing Sexy Bandit Captives.

[Guest]

I learned a lot when CK was released, and as Blackbird Wanderer  said the Bethesda Tutorials are a great place to start.

Some advice from my own experience is once you made something that is working, always save a copy of it somewhere before making additions and testing, so if something doesnt work you can drop the back up into your data folder and start again instead of chasing bugs that might have been created

 

Scripting can be fun and can make a lot of amazing things but always keep in mind that less script is better, always make sure there is not a way to do it without scripts first. I wish you the best of luck and your on the right site if you want to learn to do something many good people here willing to help

[GenioMaestro]

Papyrus is easy, it's like any other computer language, like Arduino, but inside a game.

The problem, of course, is that you need to know the basics about computer programming.

You must know what a float is and when it should be used and what a matrix is and when to use it.

The rest is easy and almost all mod have open source. Sure you can find a mod that makes some similar and look how it's done. It is the way to learn.

 

But the big problem for me is the Creation Kit and not the papyrus.

It is a very large program, too complex, with many possibilities to do many things, and it is very powerful, as -Caden- say, many times you do not need a script, you can do a lot of things with CK and many times it is better to do it with CK because the game relays a lot of things to the structure of the ESP inside the CK.

 

Then, and summarizing, first learn to use the CK. Later, if you need it, learn Papyrus.

[Mister X]

So it seems like the Creation Kit will be more of a problem.

@Blackbird Wanderer Yeah, I want to alter the mod of someone else as well, so I may ask for some help

 

OK then, off to the CK tutorials ...

[Guest]

Started modding (creating mods) in 2013.

Learnt CK step by step. Understanding what all objects do in game.

Papyrus was an easy learn for me because I know programming and it is just another easy language. I also wrote a guide to program in Papyrus.

[Tyrant99]

Just pick it up a piece at a time, it's difficult at first, but it gets easy.

 

Start with an idea of what you want to do, look at Mods that may have accomplished similar things and see how they did it.

 

Read lots about the different Papyrus functions at CK website, and watch tutorials on using CK software. Then it's just a matter of sticking with it.

[Tortex]

xEdit, Champollion, PapyrusPlusPlus, Notepad++

 

Take other people's mods apart and make them do things. Make lots of backups!