Animal Mansion 4??? (Dev Thread)

[mircislav]

18 hours ago, mircislav said:

once the author gave his approval

Animal Mansion 4.7z

Playable on Skyrim LE.

Edited October 26, 2021 by mircislav

[Chrystalline]

21 hours ago, tasairis said:

"What would I do if I could create a mod based on the Animal Mansion concept purely as a concept?"

This sounds like you are considering making a lot more work for yourself, but I have to that that I for one would be interested to see what you come up with when you aren't limiting yourself to somebody else's base ideas!

[solitudos66]

about stable use custon one /i know somebody need create it / mod need better one , my original idea is create new big stable connected to main house / location left to the main building , old is in right one /// this new stable will be construct later in game   / yeah and some upgrades quests later too for example for spiders room will be upgraded to look like spider lair etc

[tasairis]

23 hours ago, Chrystalline said:

This sounds like you are considering making a lot more work for yourself, but I have to that that I for one would be interested to see what you come up with when you aren't limiting yourself to somebody else's base ideas!

 

It's not necessarily a lot more work. Could be, but avoidably so.

 

Like, I was going to go all the way through the existing main quest before I started shaking things up, but with this new mentality I could not wait that long and instead find other reasons to fill up the basement and force the problem of running out of room to happen earlier. In fact as I write this I can think of ways to do that which also happen to conveniently solve another problem I had, plus other things... It's rather exciting because this allows me to drift back into the (my) literary ideals of allowing situations and characters to evolve organically rather than have their actions prescribed on a schedule.

 

(that all said, I do still want to stay somewhere near the original story because there's really no reason why I shouldn't)

 

I don't feel like I have to go back and change anything already in place, nor do I feel what I've done for 0.5 needs to change. So it's just adjusting my plans for what happens in the future.

Edited October 27, 2021 by tasairis

[Emrek]

Think I am missing something. I have gotten the dogs and horses, but that's all. I have a quest to talk with her "tomorrow" before the inn opens, but I have talked with her every hour for two days (even waking her up to do so) and nothing advances the story. I've also tried "talking" with the dog every hour for an entire day. When I talk with her I have three topics to talk with her about, but at this point I have heard them and nothing is new. The horses themselves outside seem to have disappeared and the basement dogs are there but are no more help than her own dog. I've even tried sleeping 8 hours until morning in the room provided.

 

What am I missing and/or what am I looking for? How can I talk with her tomorrow if tomorrow never comes?

[PippinTom]

7 minutes ago, Emrek said:

I have talked with her every hour for two days (even waking her up to do so) and nothing advances the story.

 

Maybe leave the cell for the time being or at least reenter it?

I mean - go somewhere else, preferably further than falkreth, talk to other NPCs kill/fuck some monsters and return after those 12 or 24 hours?

[Vaalesha]

3 hours ago, Emrek said:

Think I am missing something. I have gotten the dogs and horses, but that's all. I have a quest to talk with her "tomorrow" before the inn opens, but I have talked with her every hour for two days (even waking her up to do so) and nothing advances the story. I've also tried "talking" with the dog every hour for an entire day. When I talk with her I have three topics to talk with her about, but at this point I have heard them and nothing is new. The horses themselves outside seem to have disappeared and the basement dogs are there but are no more help than her own dog. I've even tried sleeping 8 hours until morning in the room provided.

 

What am I missing and/or what am I looking for? How can I talk with her tomorrow if tomorrow never comes?

The script seems to have broken, you may have to reload an old save or start a new game if waiting like PippinTom mentioned.

[Emrek]

8 hours ago, PippinTom said:

Maybe leave the cell for the time being or at least reenter it?

I mean - go somewhere else, preferably further than falkreth, talk to other NPCs kill/fuck some monsters and return after those 12 or 24 hours?

 

I did try this. When that came up, I left and went and did another couple quests and returned the next morning. Talked with her a couple times, but got nothing new. Waited around half a day and talked with her when she went to sleep. Figured something was up since that was already the second day. So I went out and ran around winterhold for about 7-10 days and returned to the same thing. That is when I decided to bother her every hour, thinking that there might be a certain time of day that I was supposed to meet her. Nothing seemed to change.

 

Now I am about a month (in game) from when the quest last advanced. Going back to a previous save, while I do have them, is not exactly an option since there has been too much time. If no one has any ideas (I am out of them) then I'll probably just ignore it or uninstall until I start a new game 6 (real) months from now. It looked interesting, but if it is going to not recognize when a day has passed - which is what I think it is waiting for - then I don't know what else I can possibly do with it.

[Drefor]

13 hours ago, Emrek said:

 

I did try this. When that came up, I left and went and did another couple quests and returned the next morning. Talked with her a couple times, but got nothing new. Waited around half a day and talked with her when she went to sleep. Figured something was up since that was already the second day. So I went out and ran around winterhold for about 7-10 days and returned to the same thing. That is when I decided to bother her every hour, thinking that there might be a certain time of day that I was supposed to meet her. Nothing seemed to change.

 

Now I am about a month (in game) from when the quest last advanced. Going back to a previous save, while I do have them, is not exactly an option since there has been too much time. If no one has any ideas (I am out of them) then I'll probably just ignore it or uninstall until I start a new game 6 (real) months from now. It looked interesting, but if it is going to not recognize when a day has passed - which is what I think it is waiting for - then I don't know what else I can possibly do with it.

I had this same problem along with one of the Huskies (male) constantly spawning outside the mansion and having trouble escorting the animals into the basement without using console commands (moveto player)
I advanced the quest with console commands to advance to stage 10 which is the next part and things seem to be working smoothly.
setstage am4_mq03 4 and
setstage am4_mq03 10

advanced me forward even though the objective to talk to Thaena "the next morning" was still incomplete in the journal. Finished the quest without problems after that.

 

Would still like to know if there's something one can do about the horses disappearing and the npc's having difficulties coming into the mansion / teleporting outside.

[tasairis]

The mechanism for the timer (yes, there is an actual timer) for when you're supposed to talk to her has proven to be quite flaky. I've changed that to something that should much more reliable. I also did something about the objective: right now it's the same one the whole time you wait, but now I've changed that to pop up new objective(s) with more precise messages.

To skip the timer and objective, "setstage am4_mq03 4" and then talk to Thaena for a brief and inconsequential conversation that begins stage 10.

 

Having various assorted problems outside the building suggests one thing: a mod conflict that upsets the navmesh. Unfortunately I traded having an ESM for the ability to tell you to rearrange your load order, but in SSEEdit you can copy the Worldspace changes into an ESP override and then put that down the order. SSEEdit would also be the place to confirm that the problem is, in fact, a mod conflict.

 

(and before anyone asks: the work is basically done, now I'm testing it all)

[Chazman89]

Okay, this rework of AM sounds really fun. I see on the front page that a link to the alpha testing version is available. Are there any mandatory mods required in order to run this (besides the usual SL, animation loader and MNC) or is it good to go right out of the box?

Edited November 3, 2021 by Chazman89
Typo

[pinaman]

On 10/25/2021 at 10:08 AM, mircislav said:

NP, glad to help.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 5:12 PM, tasairis said:

 

Go ahead. I thought all files were already compatible with LE, and even tested them myself a while back, but I guess not?

My first thought was the "CTD" was because of a missing master.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 10:24 PM, NutBoi said:

Guys is this still compatable with LE? I get a CTD everytime I start up the game.

 

same here , somehow I fail to get the mod to work in LE, I assume there is a clash with one of my other mods, as the CTD is instant while loading the game it's hard to troubleshoot, there was this tip of using the "Cathedral Assets Optimizer" and give it a try , or maybe mircislac will share his version which worked for him (does not mean that it will work for all )

 

*edit* DOH, just have seem mircislav share his version above, sorry, will test that one, and THX to mircislav

Edited November 2, 2021 by pinaman

[PippinTom]

8 hours ago, tasairis said:

Unfortunately I traded having an ESM for the ability to tell you to rearrange your load order

 

I hate changing LO midplay if other LL mods would be affected, so on current build I have few .esm placeholders ready just in case of AM4 or any other must-have but not framework-alike mod being released with their own master-alike-file ?

Nobody asks me but for sure I would prefer mod in plugin over master format. Basically because if mod is still in development stage it is safer to uninstall it after testrun midplay, assuming it is placed close to the end of LO not on very top of it.

 

So if you dropped ESM - good choice IMHO,

if not - I'm prepared too ?

[tasairis]

6 hours ago, PippinTom said:

So if you dropped ESM - good choice IMHO,

if not - I'm prepared too ?

 

I think the main reason I switched was the general concerns of having persistent forms in masters versus plugins, but it's not like I'm really using too many of them.

 

I'll look into it more (again). Doing it now would complicate the upgrade process even more (it will already involve installing the new version, going into the MCM and uninstalling, and then making a clean save) but the next planned breaking upgrade after that is the one where I publicly release this under a new name. It also wouldn't do anything to help folks with load order conflicts.

 

Although... taking the (new) ESP and temporarily renaming it to ESM, just for the sake of getting to that uninstall MCM button, should actually let everything continue to work. And that's a simple enough step to follow.

[raeder87]

The reworked story is very good. I really liked the chat in the first client quest. I hope the rest will be similar quality. 

I hope we will get some repeatable quests and party options with random npcs which can help while we are waiting for the rest of the mod. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[skyrim482]

So along with the implantation of the client system was there any other new quests or features that is going to be in the update? Is it just one client quest or did you make a few?

Im sure things changed alot since you originally posted the 0.5 plan. Hope all is well.

[skyrim482]

Also I have just been reading that steam is going to force update the skyrim SSE to have it run the same as the new AE version they are launching this next week. Supposedly this is going to break every mod. I am working to backup everything and blocked the steam updates to try to prevent this. tasairis please back up your work i would hate for you to loose anything and everyone else back up your games if you can.  I wish they would leave these games alone my SSE is finally stable...

[Dragon on the Web]

On 11/5/2021 at 2:21 PM, skyrim482 said:

Also I have just been reading that steam is going to force update the skyrim SSE to have it run the same as the new AE version they are launching this next week. Supposedly this is going to break every mod. I am working to backup everything and blocked the steam updates to try to prevent this. tasairis please back up your work i would hate for you to loose anything and everyone else back up your games if you can.  I wish they would leave these games alone my SSE is finally stable...

not EVERY mod, but SKSE and most/all SKSE plugins, and possible a few other mods.

[tasairis]

On 11/3/2021 at 9:28 AM, raeder87 said:

The reworked story is very good. I really liked the chat in the first client quest. I hope the rest will be similar quality. 

I hope we will get some repeatable quests and party options with random npcs which can help while we are waiting for the rest of the mod. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Yes to repeatable quests (starting with the next release). Party quests eventually, yeah definitel. Party quests now (well, soon), I'm not sure yet: depends on how drastically I alter my plans for some things.

[tasairis]

On 11/3/2021 at 9:28 AM, skyrim482 said:

So along with the implantation of the client system was there any other new quests or features that is going to be in the update? Is it just one client quest or did you make a few?

Im sure things changed alot since you originally posted the 0.5 plan. Hope all is well.

 

One main quest, various edits and fixes here and there, but mostly 0.5 is about getting client and quest systems in place. Then there will be some number of 0.5.x releases to add various quests that have been backing up. Not sure what 0.6 will be about yet, but I'm pretty sure there will be one because 1.0 is looking like it will be where the mod really diverges from the original.

[bluestun]

Its fantastic to hear someone is going with this mod, it is definitely one of my surprise favorites. 

[PippinTom]

On 11/8/2021 at 7:41 PM, tasairis said:

One main quest, various edits and fixes here and there, but mostly 0.5 is about getting client and quest systems in place.

 

May I ask, how are things going, considering that AE hysteria absorbing attention of (almost) everybody here these days?
I hope you don't even consider postponing anything due to that?

 

I'm not trying to nag or anything like that - just checking the pulse.

[tasairis]

10 minutes ago, PippinTom said:

 

May I ask, how are things going, considering that AE hysteria absorbing attention of (almost) everybody here these days?
I hope you don't even consider postponing anything due to that?

 

I'm not trying to nag or anything like that - just checking the pulse.

 

Not postponing. I basically just now finished doing all the The List stuff I was planning for today and tomorrow so, barring a sudden lurch forward in progress with the SKSE scene, that leaves more-or-less the rest of my weekend free for this.
 

In other news, I have some answers to some questions.

- Drastically change the main quest to get to The New Stuff sooner? Probably not. But a good chance I'll bump the last quest or two to at least overlap with Stuff: would help relieve a bit of boredom, and allow me to stretch out some things a bit more so they don't feel too unbelievable.

- Does the client system unlock/progress fast enough, as planned and implemented so far? Eh, not really. Wanted it to feel gradual ("immersion") but it's too slow. So screw that.

- Got a new name yet? No. But I have decided to keep the "Animal Mansion" name and then prepend or append something to it. Because even after The New Stuff, it will still be clearly recognizable as the same overall mod.

[PippinTom]

Thanks for response @tasairis, glad to hear that there is still hope ?

 

Regarding the title, I think you are right about continuity part(*), it's simply fair.

 

 

__________

*) as long as it will not be anything like "Animal Mansion AE edition"  ? it will be fine with me ?

[zarantha]

1 minute ago, PippinTom said:

*) as long as it will not be anything like "Animal Mansion AE edition"

 

lol,  I was literally just now thinking of suggesting "Animal Mansion - Apocalypse Edition" aka Animal Mansion AE in honor of all the folks who did not read the warnings and take precautions and are now whining.