Starfield quest modding observations, questions, hints

[Reigor]

13 hours ago, zaira said:

XEdit is only capable to modify "normal" masters, CK is only capable to modify esp.

So if I convert my mod into a master I can use xedit to remove dirty edits but I cant continue modding with the cleaned file - XEdit refuses to save my mod when I reset it to esp.

 

You can use a program like Winhex to convert a file from esp to an esm of the variety you want (full, medium, or light) by changing their hex value in the offset 81 column and then naming the file extension .esm or .esp appropriately.

 

Converting esms to esps | Modding.wiki

 

Its cumbersome, but this will allow changing the working file back and forth from an .esp (for working with the CK) to an esm for working with xEdit. Hopefully, future versions of xEdit will include this functionality.

 

On 9/18/2024 at 6:35 PM, zaira said:

Adding Voices and Soundeffects are a pain now, need a proprietary tool with a restrictive license (200 audio files maximum)

 

I was able to obtain a WWise license for free. Just say you are not doing anything for profit. For artificial voices, Elevenlabs subscription isn't very expensive and provides some quality work if voice talent isn't available or too expensive.

 

This guide was very helpful when it came to adding voices to NPCs.

 

A step-by-step guide on AI voice modding at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

 

On 9/18/2024 at 6:35 PM, zaira said:

Lib Sync is not possible for now

 

This is a glaring problem. There is a Fuz Do Ro like mod out there for Starfield, but I couldn't get it to work without bizarre side effects. For now, just have all your NPCs wear masks or helmets, be robots or telepaths, or just tell the audience to deal with it.

Edited September 23, 2024 by Reigor

[Reigor]

On 9/18/2024 at 6:35 PM, zaira said:

• The coordinate system of Papyrus has changed - the Units are different, functions like MoveTo requires different values, hard to figure out without documentation
•  

 

Not sure if this will help, but here is a link from some VC "unofficial" documentation for the CK. It helped me in explaining how scenes worked and also has a section about WWise.

 

https://starfield.hell.vc/

[Djlegends]

1 hour ago, Reigor said:

 

You can use a program like Winhex to convert a file from esp to an esm of the variety you want (full, medium, or light) by changing their hex value in the offset 81 column and then naming the file extension .esm or .esp appropriately.

 

Converting esms to esps | Modding.wiki

 

Its cumbersome, but this will allow changing the working file back and forth from an .esp (for working with the CK) to an esm for working with xEdit. Hopefully, future versions of xEdit will include this functionality.

 

 

I was able to obtain a WWise license for free. Just say you are not doing anything for profit. For artificial voices, Elevenlabs subscription isn't very expensive and provides some quality work if voice talent isn't available or too expensive.

 

This guide was very helpful when it came to adding voices to NPCs.

 

A step-by-step guide on AI voice modding at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

 

 

This is a glaring problem. There is a Fuz Do Ro like mod out there for Starfield, but I couldn't get it to work without bizarre side effects. For now, just have all your NPCs wear masks or helmets, be robots or telepaths, or just tell the audience to deal with it.

last i'd heard editing medium/light masters are entirely borked

[Reigor]

10 minutes ago, Djlegends said:

last i'd heard editing medium/light masters are entirely borked

 

Really? Admittedly, I haven't worked on my mods (which were all light esms) for a few months, so they might have changed something in how they are made in the CK in a recent patches. They did fix the bug that was causing the 100 mod or so limit and in so doing might have changed how esms are made in the CK. When I first started I was able to xEdit to edit light masters without any issues. 

 

It might be advisable to just stick with full master esms for xEdit work then until there is clarity on the matter.  

[Djlegends]

1 hour ago, Reigor said:

 

Really? Admittedly, I haven't worked on my mods (which were all light esms) for a few months, so they might have changed something in how they are made in the CK in a recent patches. They did fix the bug that was causing the 100 mod or so limit and in so doing might have changed how esms are made in the CK. When I first started I was able to xEdit to edit light masters without any issues. 

 

It might be advisable to just stick with full master esms for xEdit work then until there is clarity on the matter.  

they fixed the mod index issue with latest beta
Xedit can't edit medium/small masters only full

[zaira]

I have now started with complex scene modding and am absolutely thrilled. The story board has become so powerful that I can finally concentrate on content instead of hacks.
It's a shame that they've only done this with the scene board, the quest stages still require Papyrus scripts.

[Djlegends]

46 minutes ago, zaira said:

I have now started with complex scene modding and am absolutely thrilled. The story board has become so powerful that I can finally concentrate on content instead of hacks.
It's a shame that they've only done this with the scene board, the quest stages still require Papyrus scripts.

you can trigger quest stages in scenes if thats what ya referring too
quest fragments is much better than whatever tf was going on in skyrim lol

[zaira]

I found a severe bug in CK - it sometimes moves references into different cells with no reason.

I observed it two times now.

Since there is no way to remove edits (CK ignore function does not allow select edits fine granular, Xedit is not able to save, not even full master - it complains about non-full master or overlay master but none of these flags are set it destroys the mod.

Patching an esp to esm and back via hexedit is impossible since full master uses other reference sizes.

Edited September 24, 2024 by zaira

[Djlegends]

15 hours ago, zaira said:

I found a severe bug in CK - it sometimes moves references into different cells with no reason.

I observed it two times now.

Since there is no way to remove edits (CK ignore function does not allow select edits fine granular, Xedit is not able to save, not even full master - it complains about non-full master or overlay master but none of these flags are set it destroys the mod.

Patching an esp to esm and back via hexedit is impossible since full master uses other reference sizes.

you could post this issue on CKPE so that Perk could fix it...

[zaira]

New observation and likely a bug:

The Export Quest Dialogue function does only export SharedInfos that are used within the same quest. So if you want to create a Shared Dialogue Library you have to create a dummy scene using all shared infos.

Stupid...

[BDNelson]

Well, uh, the new DLC is out, I've installed it, SFSE, Address Library, Unofficial Patch and the Community Patch are all updated as of this post. HOWEVER, love that word, the new "Shattered Space.esm" doesn't want to stay enabled after starting the game in the newest version of MO2. When I come out of the game and look at my right-side panel in MO2, the .esm is unchecked. Before you ask, it was checked when I went into the game. My old saves didn't show up in the main menu as loadable either, had to scrap those. I know "Shattered Space" doesn't start until level 35, but the .esm should still be enabled... right?

[Reigor]

4 hours ago, BDNelson said:

Well, uh, the new DLC is out, I've installed it, SFSE, Address Library, Unofficial Patch and the Community Patch are all updated as of this post. HOWEVER, love that word, the new "Shattered Space.esm" doesn't want to stay enabled after starting the game in the newest version of MO2. When I come out of the game and look at my right-side panel in MO2, the .esm is unchecked. Before you ask, it was checked when I went into the game. My old saves didn't show up in the main menu as loadable either, had to scrap those. I know "Shattered Space" doesn't start until level 35, but the .esm should still be enabled... right?

 

This is an issue with MO2 not updated for the new version of Starfield. There is a beta dll file on the MO2 discord that should fix the problem.

 

Edit: Nope. MO2 still deactivates Shattered Space and the latest small esm (I think its the vehicle). However, if its manually activated before starting the game, both the vehicle and the Shattered Space star station show up in the game. So its a minor irritation right now. 

Edited October 1, 2024 by Reigor

[BDNelson]

Is that the "vcruntime 140_1.dll" you're talking about?

[nIn nIn nIn]

No. MO2 Discord. Look for the dev-build tab and grab the file called game_starfield.dll (drop that into the MO2 plugins folder).

[Vuulgar]

7 hours ago, BDNelson said:

Well, uh, the new DLC is out, I've installed it, SFSE, Address Library, Unofficial Patch and the Community Patch are all updated as of this post. HOWEVER, love that word, the new "Shattered Space.esm" doesn't want to stay enabled after starting the game in the newest version of MO2. When I come out of the game and look at my right-side panel in MO2, the .esm is unchecked. Before you ask, it was checked when I went into the game. My old saves didn't show up in the main menu as loadable either, had to scrap those. I know "Shattered Space" doesn't start until level 35, but the .esm should still be enabled... right?

 

I have this also except its all the game modules unchecking every time I close out the game. Everything works, I just have to re-enable the game files in the right side every time. Mine has done this since I first started playing Starfield.

[Vuulgar]

3 hours ago, nIn nIn nIn said:

No. MO2 Discord. Look for the dev-build tab and grab the file called game_starfield.dll (drop that into the MO2 plugins folder).

 

It says this file is no longer available.

[BDNelson]

I did get the newest "game starfield.dll" from a friend. I installed it in Modding\MO2\Plugins where the other file of the same name resides. It didn't work. I'm waiting for the new one to come out now. So, "Vulgar", when it comes out, that's the one you and I need to run Starfield with all the mods working in the game. I had this installed for the last version of the game as well, it worked then.

[BDNelson]

Also, make sure your "Plugins.txt" in your MO2\Profiles Starfield has the "*" in front of "Shattered Space.esm", mine didn't. I fixed that but it still isn't working after starting the game.

[zaira]

I am wondering why non-modding related topics are raising up in a modding related thread...

[nIn nIn nIn]

11 hours ago, Vuulgar said:

 

It says this file is no longer available.

 

Just looked - yes. There is a new full dev build - 2.5.3 - Dev Build 1 

 

Install that over the top of your current (now out of date) MO2 install. I use the installer version myself.

 

Edit - just did that - ran the installer over the top of the old install. All looks good to me. Can't run the game yet due to needing one more mod update. RTFP is the last one "needed" before able to launch the game. I had it set to only update on launch but Steam did a stealth update when it auto updated another game. Grrr. but whatever, all the rest of the mods are already updated.

 

note - Star UI series has been updated, the modder came back from the grave 😀

Edited October 2, 2024 by nIn nIn nIn

[Reigor]

12 hours ago, zaira said:

I am wondering why non-modding related topics are raising up in a modding related thread...

 

As the thread author, you might want to ask one of the moderators to chop off the MO2 talk and stick that in its own thread. Both getting MO2 to work with Shattered Space AND all of the observations/bugs with the Creation Kit 2 are important topics that deserve discussion.

[Vuulgar]

On 10/1/2024 at 10:16 PM, nIn nIn nIn said:

 

Just looked - yes. There is a new full dev build - 2.5.3 - Dev Build 1 

 

Install that over the top of your current (now out of date) MO2 install. I use the installer version myself.

 

Edit - just did that - ran the installer over the top of the old install. All looks good to me. Can't run the game yet due to needing one more mod update. RTFP is the last one "needed" before able to launch the game. I had it set to only update on launch but Steam did a stealth update when it auto updated another game. Grrr. but whatever, all the rest of the mods are already updated.

 

note - Star UI series has been updated, the modder came back from the grave 😀

 

Great thanks and if you missed it RTFP is updated.

 

[nIn nIn nIn]

2 hours ago, Vuulgar said:

 

Great thanks and if you missed it RTFP is updated.

 

 

Saw that, and go grab the MO2 dev build 2  - it's a big update on the dev build 1.

 

I check for updates twice a day at the moment, first thing in the morning and again just before loading up my game. 

[zaira]

I tried to get sound effects into the Game without success. Although I have a license for WWise now and followed WWise tutorials and CK Tutorials, neither CK not Starfield is able to play sound effects from a generated soundbank.

I can see my events in CK - so general loading of the soundbank succeeds. My soundbank is exactly organized like the origin Starfield soundbank, I use the conversion settings and bus settings from Starfield.

When I monitor the startfield process I can see that starfield accesses my soundbank. But when I trigger the sound events I got simply this message
 

[18:08:46] error: PlayAtRefRoot/PlayAsUI: Wwise failed to play the event.

 

 

Not useful.

I have the impression that Starfield is organized to load only it's own soundbank. My soundbank is valid, but it looks like it needs to be certified by Bethesda to load.

 

This and the missing of lip sync leads to the impression that quest modding is unwanted at this point of time. CK release was a marketing gag.

[Djlegends]

11 hours ago, zaira said:

I tried to get sound effects into the Game without success. Although I have a license for WWise now and followed WWise tutorials and CK Tutorials, neither CK not Starfield is able to play sound effects from a generated soundbank.

I can see my events in CK - so general loading of the soundbank succeeds. My soundbank is exactly organized like the origin Starfield soundbank, I use the conversion settings and bus settings from Starfield.

When I monitor the startfield process I can see that starfield accesses my soundbank. But when I trigger the sound events I got simply this message
 

[18:08:46] error: PlayAtRefRoot/PlayAsUI: Wwise failed to play the event.

 

 

Not useful.

I have the impression that Starfield is organized to load only it's own soundbank. My soundbank is valid, but it looks like it needs to be certified by Bethesda to load.

 

This and the missing of lip sync leads to the impression that quest modding is unwanted at this point of time. CK release was a marketing gag.

your mod doesn't need its own soundbank.json since it will conflict with the base game soundbank.json
also hope ya looked here for getting WWise setted up since others are able to make audio just fine
https://starfield.hell.vc/?iframeUrl=8.4+Wwise+and+Audiokinetic+Setup.html

Edited October 14, 2024 by Djlegends