[WIP] Skykids - Child races & other technical goodies - No more armor patcher! New CotS R2 Race!(6/22/15)

[en_hawk]

I have a new problem. When I run the SKArmorPatcher.jar file, it opens up and immediately says "There was an exception thrown during program execution" and then closes the patcher.

 

is there a fix for this?

That sounds like a problem with your java install, there isn't much help I can offer from my end. Do other java applications function correctly? Try doing a full reinstall of JRE7.

[Guest ChainedHunter]

 

I have a new problem. When I run the SKArmorPatcher.jar file, it opens up and immediately says "There was an exception thrown during program execution" and then closes the patcher.

 

is there a fix for this?

That sounds like a problem with your java install, there isn't much help I can offer from my end. Do other java applications function correctly? Try doing a full reinstall of JRE7.

 

Yes, other java apps work fine. i tried a full reinstall and it changed nothing.

[en_hawk]

Yes, other java apps work fine. i tried a full reinstall and it changed nothing.

Have you tried any other SkyProc based patchers, such as ReProccer(you don't need to actually install the requirements for the mod, just see if the patcher launches).

 

The error you are getting really sounds like a java/skyproc related issue, not something related to my armor patcher specifically.

[Rez Delnava]

 

Yes, other java apps work fine. i tried a full reinstall and it changed nothing.

I remember this happening once to me before with a different skyproc patcher. It sometimes happens when the file its trying to write (the SK armor swap .esp in this case) is being used in another program or is otherwise somehow corrupted and unable to be overwritten.  Backup your existing .esp then remove it from your data folder. Then, use forced mode (the checkbox up on the right near the cancel and patch buttons) the next time you run the patcher.

[MidbossVyers]

Are the vampire versions of the child races tagged as undead?  I am playing as a vampire with the restoration perk, Necromage, but I don't see the 25% bonus for enchantments.  For example, my Ebony Boots enchantment that normally gives 15% fire resist should be 18% due to vampirism and Necromage but still looks like that it's 15%.  Also, this might be related to the Ebony Mail and not this race mod, but whenever my character gets naked while the Ebony Mail mist is active, she gets black texture hands.  This is not a major problem as quitting the game and reloading it fixes it, though.

[panthercom]

 How does one go about editing vanilla children in the Creation Kit?

 

 Specifically, their faces and general physical appearance.

 

 I thought I would work on some of the more far-flung characters

and make my results publicly available (I know everybody is probably

going to mod the adoptable children first anyway)

 

 Is the the showracemenu and export data trick to the CK the only way to

do anything for the kids?

 

This is some of my handiwork from New Vegas, BTW And yes, I will work on

some of the dudes too, since they tend to get ignored.

 

 

[Rez Delnava]

There is another way using Expired's Racemenu with CGE. You export the head using the racemenu keybinding, then that can be used.

Personally, I can't get it to work.  There's some black magic that has to be done with NifSkope's settings that I've yet to find an adequate explanation or tutorial for.

 

What i've done for converting npcs to SK (I posted pics of my Frothar and Aventus a few pages back), was just open skyrim (using SBW), make the appearance I want in character creation, then use TES5Edit on my second screen to set the values to the NPC's data. You're limited to the default sliders, but thats not such a bad thing considering we have some great assets to work with. It also means that conversions done this way don't have to be packaged with the headpart nif.

 

But... my gut feeling says to hold off on getting too involved on making NPC conversions (at least for public release, if there's some special NPC that you want to make your own then by all means) because something is telling me that en_hawk has already completed most NPC conversions and an update for SK is coming up.  Thats just my hunch tho.

[Emprah]

I was planning on using Requiem along with this Mod, but it seems tha Requiem overwites some files, such as the Vampire quest script that Racial compatibility installs. I was wondering if anyone knows if it's safe to let it overwrite it?

[JerWA]

Almost all of the built in NPC children are going to be replaced already. Not sure about adoptables yet, they may actually need to be done still. We will be using CGE exported assets and they look pretty kick ass. Just waiting on some stuff to come together, though I thought we were closer to release than we were evidently. I'll go harass 'hawk some and see how angry he gets.

[panthercom]

What is SBW?

I  just downloaded something called 'NPC Photobooth' off the Nexus that's

supposed to make the process easier.'

 

 It's great if the vanilla kids are in the process of being de-homogenized.

 

 I'll still do a few characters for myself... because it's fun

There is another way using Expired's Racemenu with CGE. You export the head using the racemenu keybinding, then that can be used.

Personally, I can't get it to work.  There's some black magic that has to be done with NifSkope's settings that I've yet to find an adequate explanation or tutorial for.

 

What i've done for converting npcs to SK (I posted pics of my Frothar and Aventus a few pages back), was just open skyrim (using SBW), make the appearance I want in character creation, then use TES5Edit on my second screen to set the values to the NPC's data. You're limited to the default sliders, but thats not such a bad thing considering we have some great assets to work with. It also means that conversions done this way don't have to be packaged with the headpart nif.

 

But... my gut feeling says to hold off on getting too involved on making NPC conversions (at least for public release, if there's some special NPC that you want to make your own then by all means) because something is telling me that en_hawk has already completed most NPC conversions and an update for SK is coming up.  Thats just my hunch tho.

 

[Rez Delnava]

 

What is SBW?

That would be Simple Borderless Window; Its quite literally the oldest Skyrim mod around so I thought is would be safe to use its acronym.  But anyways, it just makes it so you can alt-tab out of skyrim and back in without things blowing up; pretty useful for going back and forth between your test mode and the mod you're working on, but only if your processor is decent.

 

 

On an SK development note, I cleaned (and made one for the male) the Apachii hair plugins so that they can co-exist with the main Apachii hair files and the hairs will appear for both adult and SK. Last I checked, the SK Apachii addons would disable the adult hair from appearing in the racemenu while the SK addon was active in the load order.  Disregard if its been fixed already, but if its something you guys would like, just let me know and I can shoot you the files.

[en_hawk]

On an SK development note, I cleaned (and made one for the male) the Apachii hair plugins so that they can co-exist with the main Apachii hair files and the hairs will appear for both adult and SK. Last I checked, the SK Apachii addons would disable the adult hair from appearing in the racemenu while the SK addon was active in the load order.  Disregard if its been fixed already, but if its something you guys would like, just let me know and I can shoot you the files.

The 'dirty' edit was intentional, the only alternative is to make a full copy of the hair mod in question and patch it for SK(copying the HDPT records themselves and mastering is nonviable in terms of update compatibility). I chose this approach in order to retain compatibility with the parent mod and any updates or changes it's author may release. Of course I'm operating under the assumption that mod authors would not change their mod in such a way as to break existing characters during an update.

 

With patches developed in this way, updates to the parent mod will remain viable if the SK patch was disabled after selecting hair, as opposed to being stuck waiting for me or someone else to build a patch for the new update. Of course in a perfect world I would be keeping on top of every hair mod update and this would be irrelevant, however it seemed like the more prudent approach to patch the mods rather than copy them(there's more details in the technical info section for those so inclined).

 

Additionally, creating new records for the hair creates problems with SK dependent mods, where if a mod required a certain hair pack the user would not only have to install the specific version of that pack which was used, but would need the compatibility patch as well(which in the present implementation is only required for player use, NPCs can use the base mod directly) regardless of if they intended to play as an SK race or not.

 

I screwed around with various different methods of patching for around a week during initial development before settling on this; it may not be the ideal solution, but its better than everything else.

[Rez Delnava]

Sound reasoning. The same as master method also has the benefit of not doubling the work of the pre-cacher when racemenu loads--not that many of us still allow it to run. But in my particular use-case, I need both available while I tweak every NPC to not be fugly. I just thought I would offer it, and I probably shouldn't have worded it as if it was something 'wrong' with your file :sorry: (which I know it not, its just the common phrase for renumbering and remastering)

[MidbossVyers]

If you join the Volkihar in the Dawnguard DLC, Orthjolf will have different dialogue depending on whether or not your character is an elf. http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Orthjolf How is that handled here?

[taiolu]

If you join the Volkihar in the Dawnguard DLC, Orthjolf will have different dialogue depending on whether or not your character is an elf. http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Orthjolf How is that handled here?

 

That is up to the race compatibility mod and bethesda

It needs to read for the actorproxyrace keyword instead of the race name itself, but unless race compatibility starts changing every bit of dialog or bethesda does the same that will not happen yet.

[jmpjdp]

I tried a lot of the suggestions but none work. When I run the armor patch it says that I need skykids.esm to be active, but it already is. please help

 

[JerWA]

I tried a lot of the suggestions but none work. When I run the armor patch it says that I need skykids.esm to be active, but it already is. please help

 

Run BOSS and post your load order.

[jmpjdp]

 

I tried a lot of the suggestions but none work. When I run the armor patch it says that I need skykids.esm to be active, but it already is. please help

 

Run BOSS and post your load order.

 

 

its a long list

[JerWA]

Oy vey, you have so many race mods I'm kind've surprised it works at all. It also looks like you have a bunch of mods BOSS doesn't recognize so they're going at the bottom which is going to break the armor patcher. A couple of the ones placing after the swapper and bashed patch are race and equipment mods that are certainly going to be doing bad things to other mods above them (and the patcher for sure).

 

Maybe someone else will have more input, but all I can say at this point is to make BOSS rules for everything it doesn't recognize and get them above your bashed patch. You can't just move them manually, the patcher runs BOSS first and will just sort them back where they were.

 

Does Wrye show out of order masters?

[jmpjdp]

Oy vey, you have so many race mods I'm kind've surprised it works at all. It also looks like you have a bunch of mods BOSS doesn't recognize so they're going at the bottom which is going to break the armor patcher. A couple of the ones placing after the swapper and bashed patch are race and equipment mods that are certainly going to be doing bad things to other mods above them (and the patcher for sure).

 

Maybe someone else will have more input, but all I can say at this point is to make BOSS rules for everything it doesn't recognize and get them above your bashed patch. You can't just move them manually, the patcher runs BOSS first and will just sort them back where they were.

 

Does Wrye show out of order masters?

no wyre bash doesn't show out of order masters.  I'm going to take away some race mods and unrecognized boss mods and see if that helps lol.  Thanks for the responses and info.

[MidbossVyers]

 

If you join the Volkihar in the Dawnguard DLC, Orthjolf will have different dialogue depending on whether or not your character is an elf. http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Orthjolf How is that handled here?

 

That is up to the race compatibility mod and bethesda

It needs to read for the actorproxyrace keyword instead of the race name itself, but unless race compatibility starts changing every bit of dialog or bethesda does the same that will not happen yet.

 

 

So Orthjolf's AI does not read if the player's race is "elf" or not?  High elf child still has the word "elf" in it.

[JerWA]

 

So Orthjolf's AI does not read if the player's race is "elf" or not?  High elf child still has the word "elf" in it.

 

I don't know the answer to that question, but the SK races are proxied to their parent races. e.g. high elf child is actorproxyhighelf or whatever, not just one generic proxy race. How that's handled in the race compat mod though I don't know.

[SolidSnakeFH]

Hey, Skykids team, I wanted to let you know that I had made this account with LL solely to have access to this mod (At least, initially). Now, I'm equally happy have made it so that I can thank you! It's fantastic work and I really appreciate all of the forethought and precision put into the description page's preview and installation instructions.

 

I'm just a novice modder (just started to game on my pc about 5 days ago) so all of the technical aspects of this stuff are way above my paygrade, yet I was still able to follow along and install everything with only a few self-caused hitches. I've also perused this thread and you folks are also pretty polite, friendly and patient.  So again a big thanks from a new fan, to en_hawk, Jerwa and the rest of the Skykids team.

 

I'm looking forward to the NPC patch that's being worked on and the teenager stuff, too. I hope that you guys don't forget crafting the boys going forward, with the teens or nude patches for the boy models=] . I tried out other kid mods before this one and while I'm appreciative of the efforts they were lackluster when compared to SK. Currently I'm trying out Tk Children for the NPCs: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49756/? 

 

Do you think there might be compatibility issues between SK and TKC? Really hoping you guys get that NPC patch up and running soon, I vastly prefer your work. 

[Rez Delnava]

I haven't downloaded TK (don't like the proportions of the faces), but I believe that it only changes the headparts of the generic children. Sk adds a new playable race with new parts, so there should be no conflict.

[en_hawk]

I'm a bit busy presently so I can't look at that mod in depth, however on the surface I don't see anything that jumps out as inherently incompatible. Give it a shot.