Any recommendations for starting modding Skyrim myself?

[Sammielfa]

Hi.  I've been lurking for a while now but have used a lot of the Sexlab mods and other Skyrim mods. Figured it was about time I became a more active member of the community with both more posts and maybe making a mod/learning how to something myself. The thing is... I have no clue where to start. Can anybody give any recommendations of things to read/watch to begin Skyrim modding please? 

(it's a little ironic that me beginning to do things myself begins with me asking for help xD)(Also figured this post might be an ok way to say hi)

[Guest Plastrader]

Hello and welcome out from "lurkerhood"!

Depends on what you want to mod.

Meshes(models)

Places, houses

Animations

Quests

Scripting

[sbire]

first, play vanilla..... and then change what you doesn't like.

 

[Sammielfa]

Thanks for the welcome from Lurkerhood. Feels good. If I wanted to learn how to make quests and maybe some scripting and models what would be involved? Also feel free to drop in nooby tips as that's what I am. A little bit of a beginner.

[mybrainhurts]

 

(it's a little ironic that me beginning to do things myself begins with me asking for help xD)

 

  That was a good one.

 

Almost anything you do will most likely require that you use the Creation Kit. That site will get you started on that and it has good tutorials.

[Guest Plastrader]

Almost anything you do will most likely require that you use the Creation Kit. That site will get you started on that and it has good tutorials.

Agreed! Those will get you going, atleast as far as the CK goes, I haven't looked at the tutorials for modding meshes, if there are any at all!

When you get your feet wet and(if) you get stuck, describe your problem as detailed as you can and post it on Skyrim Technical Support

 

@mybrainhurts

NO! MY BRAIN IN MY HEAD!!

[Carabosse]

Yes, definitely do all of the tutorials on the creation kit website. I'd also recommend doing them in order. Still do the ones that might cover areas you're not interested in (they don't take long). Knowing how it all works together really helps.

 

There are also lots of great tutorials on youtube. The ones by Doughamil and Darkfox127 in particular really helped me.

[Guest IAmTheOneWhoKnocks]

Do everything everybody here said. Then do it again.

The only thing that'll get you used to modding and comfortable with the creation kit is just using it often, practicing everything you learn.

[Sammielfa]

 

 

Almost anything you do will most likely require that you use the Creation Kit. That site will get you started on that and it has good tutorials.

 

Alright thanks that's like perfect for what I was looking for. Didn't realise there was an entire wiki on the stuff.

 

When you get your feet wet and(if) you get stuck, describe your problem as detailed as you can and post it on Skyrim Technical Support

 

It's good to know there's a place I can beg for help if I mess up as I'm sure to.

[DUBALADO]

first, play vanilla..... and then change what you doesn't like.

 

Is the most intelligent response you can have ... thanks sbire .

The first thing you have to solve are the large number of bugs. for that installs the latest versions of the most important mods:

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19/?and complementary mods

Safety Load http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/46465/?

Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27418/?

Brawl Bugs Patch http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24020/?

 

After this, the body type, armor, ornaments, followers. You do not need 250 mods, to enjoy this game ... save yourself some bugs.

Start a vanilla game, you'll realize for yourself what are the mods you really need. Greetings and good luck my friend

[TheDriedFinger]

This is what I did, and it is what I would recommend because the path really encourages discovery based on need.

 

I started out just thinking, "How do I make an OP weapon?" This familiarized me with the Weapon form; I learned things like the attack speed, reach, how to associate relevant sounds, but it exposed me to the idea of enchantments, scripts, and to some extent keywords as well. I started asking, "Well, what do they do?"

 

If you're going to make an OP weapon, you should learn about Enchantments. Enchantments turned out to be based on Magic Effects; tons of fun stuff there - shader effects, how damage is calculated, the effect archetypes, casting types and targets. And, this all translated very well into making Spells too since, they are also based on Magic Effects.

 

Then, of course, there's that box at the bottom right in the Magic Effect window that allows you to add scripts. So, I delved into the game's Magic Effects that had scripts and I looked at the syntax and figured out what I didn't understand from the Creation Kit website.

 

Quests were another story. They're tricky business and can look really intimidating, so it's nice to look at the tutorial on the Creation Kit website and walk through it. But the scripting knowledge from before really comes in handy. And, I feel that, once you've learned how Quests work, you've really delved into the heart of the Creation Kit and everything else just falls into place from there.

 

Anyway, I just think that learning to use the CK is way more engaging and exciting if you do it with the hope of starting small and then expanding from what you know, using your thirst for discovery as the fuel that drives you.

[Kimy]

^ This

 

I did the "learning by doing" approach, too. Skyrim modding is too big a field to become an expert in it all. I decided what sort of mod I wanted to make and then acquired the necessary skills needed for just that, one step at a time.

 

There is the awesome Creation Kit Wiki that will cover your most basic needs. However, you will find that you will need more advanced tutorials very soon, and that's where various YouTube videos came in handy (personally I normally avoid YT for stuff like that, but in this case they have been really helpful).

 

And - most important in my opinion - open some mods similar to what you want to do in CK and analyze how it's being doing. Or if you want to get into scripting, read other people's source code.

[WaxenFigure]

 

One of the first things you need to do is switch to Mod Organizer as your mod manager if you haven't done so already. This is because with Mod Organizer you can keep all of the files for your mod in their own private folder so when you go to zip it up as a mod you have all the files you need in one handy location.

 

Now that the longstanding problem of how to get the Papyrus compiler to work from Mod Organizer so you can properly compile your scripts solved its handier than ever.

 

 

I am also going to assume that you are asking here because you want to create a mod that involves Sex. There is documentation for the Sexlab Framework at http://git.loverslab.com/sexlab/framework/wikis/home.

 

Another good way to learn is to look at the mods that other people have created, especially if they did something in their mod that you'd like to do in your mod. The mods here at Lovers Lab are especially helpful in that regard since I think all of them here actually come with the source files for the scripts as the authors here seem to be good at sharing and helping each other.

 

If there's a mod that doesn't come with source but you'd like to know how they did it, then use this tool to turn their compiled code back into source code (it will lack the author's comments that make it easier to understand but it will be the code pretty much as originally written). http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35307/?

 

And as always, there are a lot of nice people here at LL willing to help.

 

One warning, try not to use anything in your mod from a source that does not have an open permission for use or that you can't get permission from the author to use unless you intend for that mod to be your private mod never to be shared with anyone else.

[Kimy]

I am using Notepad++ for compiling Papyrus scripts, which works like a charm. There are tutorials on the Creation Kit wiki how to set it up and get syntax highlighting working, which you might appreciate, particularly if your work is going to be scripting heavy (like mine).

 

About Mod Organizer - I am aware that its fans are quite eager to recommend it to anyone else, but it's really a matter of opinion. Stating that you NEED it to mod is highly exaggerated at least. I mod and I hate MO with a passion. This thing can't even handle a non-standard folder structure inside the zipped file and makes you tell it manually where the root /data folder actually is if it's not set up 100% the way it expects it to be. Have fun doing that with the 60-80% of all mods that come with a non-standard folder structure. Even NMM can do that automatically... 'nuff said.

 

I definitely agree about reading other people's source, though. There are basically NO good sources for Papyrus other than the Creation Kit Wiki out there (at least none I am aware of), so reading source is pretty much the only way to learn advanced scripting. And yes, in contrast to a certain other large modding site, we seem to be more willing to distribute our source, which is awesome!

[Sammielfa]

I am using Notepad++ for compiling Papyrus scripts, which works like a charm. There are tutorials on the Creation Kit wiki how to set it up and get syntax highlighting working, which you might appreciate, particularly if your work is going to be scripting heavy (like mine).

 

I definitely agree about reading other people's source, though. There are basically NO good sources for Papyrus other than the Creation Kit Wiki out there (at least none I am aware of), so reading source is pretty much the only way to learn advanced scripting. And yes, in contrast to a certain other large modding site, we seem to be more willing to distribute our source, which is awesome!

Thanks for the advice. The community of Loverslab seems much better at talking and being friendly and generous with code and tips. And I'd agree that's awesome and certainly leads to more mods and more interest. Now I just need to find the time to get into all of this. 

[Slorm]

One thing that would be useful is a more general description of how all the different parts fit together (an overview perhaps) and a glossary. Something that covered the Skyrim Data directory structure would be useful as well so that beginners would have a clear idea of what goes where from the start. Speaking as a total beginner sometimes the problem is simply not knowing the right question to ask as it's not always clear what needs to be done in the first place and where (hope that makes sense)

 

The CK Wiki is good but tends to have large blocks of material where it's not always obvious if you need to look at it if it's not an area you're particularly interested in, though obviously it is still good background information and useful to know.

 

In short there's lots of information on "how" to do things but not always enough on the "why".

[s.eden]

As to be more here, knowing it is (..) an adult community, indeed, user should (at least) have more opening & options than the average user elsewhere (not speaking of Steam or Nexus  these days, where hope to have a supportive community is quite lost, or, say for old game where the main part of the "Steam" (sic, steam(punk) is quite a great base as to arts & design, but the facility (one click = use ? !!)..

As to modding from scratch then.

Tutorial yes, but.
 

Depend as to the time you have, see to start modding, say, create a cell, then, a npc, then give him packages > dialogue.
When that (who is among the Vanilla TESC range) is ok, come time to seek advanced options.

Skyrim NPC Editor (more friendly as to the basic creation/edit of a npc than the TESC)
String Maker (as to dialogue ++).
SUM (Advanced ++)

+1 as to notepad++ & the script highlight addon.
 

Then, are the tools, TES5Edit + addons (merge script & TES5Edit Scripts, Automation Tools).

Add then the tools related to Mesh, sound, etc.

Not forgetting the special mod/tutorial :

Just in Time Lighting
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10361
> Video.
Tutorial "how to use scripts to eliminate "flickering" of dynamic lights when there are more than 4 near the player."
(Very useful + beautiful, allow to avoid the bug often encountered into interiors).
http://sots-eye-candy.blogspot.fr/2012/02/skyrim-ck-scripting-tutorial-dynamic.html

Multiple Floor Sandoxing
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57376/?

Parentless Connection Framework
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57266/?
Script allowing to link esp between them (SKSE)

Source script lost : Champollion
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35307
A tool to decompile a .PEX file to a recompilable .PSC script file.

Intellisky
- script edit + proofreading, autocomplete, code folding, synthax highlight, papyrus check & compilation support !
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50522

 

Light switch script :
http://www.creationkit.com/Light_Switch

 

Fixing navmeshes: http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3337-skyrim-fixing-navmesh-deletion-using-tes5edit/
or: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1229197-the-evil-mansion-tough-edition/page-23&do=findComment&comment=13279143
 
TES5Edit Tutorial:

TESAnnwyn
http://projectmanager.f2s.com/morrowind/TESAnnwyn.html
Import / Export of RAW/BMP (LandMass builder)

Supplemental :
http://www.creationkit.com/Creating_a_Custom_Worldspace_with_LOD#Generating_Object_LOD

Oscape
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4727/?
Lod Generation

 

Dialogue worry : SEQ file http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33140099

Scripts : use SKSE (can manage script in case of un-installation)
http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/3752-skse-cleans-invalid-scripts-from-old-mods/

--- Voice Acting
Base = http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/74-voice-actors-project/: Voice Acting Guild
Or : http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/951656-the-voice-actors-of-skyrim-nexus/

(Voice Actors of Skyrim, not sure, some skilled peoples are on both)

---NPC Related :
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19169       EDialog (blush/smile, headtracking)

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50329       Neck Seam Fix (out of facegen export, a RaceMenu overlay..)

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/515/?       More Fleckles

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52841/?       Frecle Mania

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51782/?       Princess Tears (idles collection, ressource)

Grey face bug : (Facegen data export)     http://www.creationkit.com/Dark_Face_Bug

By now, the best way to go as to modding otherwise = separated esp for each part > merge when needed.
It was not recommendable until some months (Guess the scripts is quite close to be completed, knowing it handled even the merge of MCM scripts).

Guess there is more to say, but the time to seek all the tools, set them up + some use = hours.
Which is why starting by creating should be priority, otherwise, no way to know when you would be starting otherwise.

Then, if interested as to quest, hm.
That is quite the Grand track if there is one, with close to limitless options.

Of course, you have the hand, but, in most case, seeing to the tutorial should come on a "need" basis, so as to have the better chance to both remember & take advantage of the data.