What is "Additional Races" record responsible for?

[belegost]

What does this record do? I noticed that very often in vanilla this record is not used, while a lot of armor mods fill this up with additional entries. I am creating a merged patch. Should I forward these changes? Does it matter?

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by belegost

[Scrat1201]

There are used by the Skyrim engine to mark compatible races for those armors. Most human races are using the some body type, like Miraak in your example can wear an armor which are designed for Nords. Even an Argonian could wear an armor part of a Nord in some cases, so that armor can be marked as compatble if required.

[belegost]

21 hours ago, Scrat1201 said:

There are used by the Skyrim engine to mark compatible races for those armors. Most human races are using the some body type, like Miraak in your example can wear an armor which are designed for Nords. Even an Argonian could wear an armor part of a Nord in some cases, so that armor can be marked as compatble if required.

 

I don't quite understand. Do you mean that unless I forward these changes, some races wouldn't be able to equip them at all? I can't recall ever having problems with that, even on beast races. And what is even Miraak doing there? He's a not a playable character, nor even a follower, unless you mod him (her) to be. I don't quite get the logic. Could you, in theory, restrict certain armors from being worn by certain races simply just by omitting them form this record?

[Scrat1201]

Yes, the armor will not show up ingame if not marked as valid for the race. It stays in the inventory, but will not be equipped.

 

If you look at all "additonal races" entries you will notice, that the steel armor is by default valid for beast races like Orcs and Argonians.

 

I really have no idea why the Miraak race is added there, i didn't have this entry in my version of Immersive Sounds - Compendium. The important change from that mod is the Footstep Sound entry for the steel armor, i think that's clear.

[belegost]

1 hour ago, Scrat1201 said:

Yes, the armor will not show up ingame if not marked as valid for the race. It stays in the inventory, but will not be equipped.

 

If you look at all "additonal races" entries you will notice, that the steel armor is by default valid for beast races like Orcs and Argonians.

 

I really have no idea why the Miraak race is added there, i didn't have this entry in my version of Immersive Sounds - Compendium. The important change from that mod is the Footstep Sound entry for the steel armor, i think that's clear.

 

I see. What is DefaultRace then? I see it often in the records.

[Scrat1201]

As far as i know DefaultRace is used when a race entry is required, but is not further specific. It's not a playable race, so i use it when i have to set race entry in general terms and later i put the playable races entries in addition. Seems like DefaultRace is mainly used for human kind races and FoxRace when it comes to creatures. For an armor item e.g. the armor addon entry determines what races are allowed to equip them, while the related "armor" defines if it is a light, heavy or cloth armor type, independently of the wearer.

[ghastley]

My understanding is that default race is the template from which the playable races were derived. That let the developers set everything just once, and all the others got the same values. Then they tweaked things like height, that differ from the base, and made those playable. The same technique is used for a lot of clothing, where a base template is defined, and then color and enchantment variants all derive from that.

[belegost]

I appreciate all the answers, there is much I have learned.

 

9 hours ago, Scrat1201 said:

FoxRace

Heh, here's another odd one. I've seen this as well. I assume this is not the animal that runs around because e.g. Zim's Dremora Improvements changes Dremora Lord to FoxRace and they do not look like foxes in game. Some of the stuff I find in records is just bizarre.

[Scrat1201]

The Creation Kit is often using default entries, e.g. the FoxRace in some dropdown lists for creatures, depending on the menu type. Therefore entries could be filled automatically and the modder can focus on the required changes to make anything work. Unfortunately for me, i had to learn which flags and entries needs to be corrected from default values and which ones are making no difference in the end. Mostly it's try and error till i got the desired results, because the CK documentation is not very detailed. It's really helpful that there are so many modders for Skyrim sharing their knowledge.

If you step about a bizarre entry, but the mod works, keep in mind that sometimes settings just need to filled, but aren't used at this point from the game engine.