Looking for help developing current and new mods

[Veladarius]

So due to health issues, work and the pile of mods that I need to finish or have ideas for I am looking for some help with developing. Here are the projects I am looking for assistance on:

 

Captured Dreams: I am looking for help with dialogue, plain and simple. According to CGi I have 6700 lines of dialogue (v3 had about 5000) but I will probably add another 3000 - 4000 lines before this version is ready. Part of it will be filling out existing dialogue (more choices / responses) and the other will be for new quests / scenes. Knowing how to build dialogue in the CK and handle conditions for them is preferred (no scripting necessary).

 

For the Masses: This needs a major update to add the new items and handle items from other mods. I have a number of ideas on this but building the MCM menu's is something I am not very good at.

 

<New> Outfit Adjustments: I have a way in mind to be able to change and assign outfits to npc's (followers or not) but 90% of it will be MCM menu driven. Some of what I am looking to do with it is:

1- Remove outfits from npc's so you can dress them as you like

2- Build custom outfits and assign them to npc's

3- See what an npc currently has for an outfit

All it will do is allow you to change an outfit so there would not be any scripts running on npc's, it would just assign a new outfit to them.

 

There are a few others I have in mind but I have not looked at what is out there that is similar yet.

[ThatSeasonsGal]

I would volunteer, but my knowledge of the CK is limited, to say the least. If you need assistance testing or spell-cheking/dialogue writing, I can probably help 

[Content Consumer]

So due to health issues, work and the pile of mods that I need to finish or have ideas for I am looking for some help with developing. Here are the projects I am looking for assistance on:

 

Captured Dreams: I am looking for help with dialogue, plain and simple. According to CGi I have 6700 lines of dialogue (v3 had about 5000) but I will probably add another 3000 - 4000 lines before this version is ready. Part of it will be filling out existing dialogue (more choices / responses) and the other will be for new quests / scenes. Knowing how to build dialogue in the CK and handle conditions for them is preferred (no scripting necessary).

That's about all I can do with the CK. But I think I'm pretty good at it...   

 

For the Masses: This needs a major update to add the new items and handle items from other mods. I have a number of ideas on this but building the MCM menu's is something I am not very good at.

Neither am I. But I'm learning. Slowly.

 

<New> Outfit Adjustments: I have a way in mind to be able to change and assign outfits to npc's (followers or not) but 90% of it will be MCM menu driven. Some of what I am looking to do with it is:

1- Remove outfits from npc's so you can dress them as you like

2- Build custom outfits and assign them to npc's

3- See what an npc currently has for an outfit

All it will do is allow you to change an outfit so there would not be any scripts running on npc's, it would just assign a new outfit to them.

I have absolutely no idea about this. Removing/assigning outfits by script is easy enough, but building your own outfit in-game? I'm lost.

Although I do believe there's a mod that does something like this already on Nexus... some marriage mod, I believe.

 

There are a few others I have in mind but I have not looked at what is out there that is similar yet.

Bottom line: I'd be willing to help with writing dialogue, or even with MCM stuff.

Thing is, I'm sort of half-assed working on Reward Your Followers at the moment, changing my scripts up and trying to finish it... and I'm working slowly. I mean, it's been a week since my last update, which should have been only one or two days at most.

 

Tell you what... I'll officially throw my hat into the ring as soon as I finish this next update? Not sure if my writing will be up to the challenge, but I'm willing to give it a shot...

[Veladarius]

Thanks, help is appreciated as I want things to advance faster than they have been. The dialogue doesn't necessarily need built in the CK, knowing how it is laid out and what you can / can't do is the primary things.

 

Most of what I have done with MCM menu's has been copy, paste and adjust so there is still things I don't know or understand completely.

 

There are a number of mods that let you change npc's outfits (folloers / spouses) but with this I am looking to allow it for any npc. for changing the outfits I am looking to have a number of 'empty' outfits that has its own leveled list in it and the items can be added to that via script and adjusted that way.

[Content Consumer]

 

 

Thanks, help is appreciated as I want things to advance faster than they have been. The dialogue doesn't necessarily need built in the CK, knowing how it is laid out and what you can / can't do is the primary things.

This thread made me decide to get my ass in gear and finish up Reward Your Followers.

I'll be able to post the update and start doing other stuff in a couple of days (finish the mod, hand it off to beta testers, feedback, modifications, re-beta, release).

Better, I think... that way we won't be passing .esp files back and forth, waiting for the other person to finish working before continuing on.

 

Would you mind terribly posting (or PM-ing) an example of what you'll be asking for, and/or how you expect it to be formatted? For example, might you ask:

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about something"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies, Fred is against the idea"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies, Fred is against the idea, Bob gets progressively more angry at Fred"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies, Fred is against the idea, Bob gets progressively more angry at Fred, Bob ends up with a 'goodbye' topic"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies, Fred is against the idea, Bob gets progressively more angry at Fred, Bob ends up with a 'goodbye' topic where he says the phrase 'bunnies are Daedra worshippers!'"

 

"Bob and Fred are talking about killing bunnies, Fred is against the idea, Bob gets progressively more angry at Fred, Bob ends up with a 'goodbye' topic where he says the phrase 'bunnies are Daedra worshippers!' but only if current weather is snowing"

 

"Write some kind of dialogue between two people"

 

"Write some kind of dialogue between a master and a slave"

 

"Just write something, dammit!"

 

And what would be my appropriate response?

example.txt

[Veladarius]

Content consumer, let me know when you are ready, I will get together some basic outlines of scenes and such.

 

This is an example of a dialogue layout I did for the Assist a Customer scene: Assist a Customer 01 detail.rtf

Probably the most difficult part is that dialogue between an npc and the player is done in the dialogue tab while npc to npc dialogue is handled in the scene tab. With the scene dialogue for the Assist a Customer quest since I had 4 different slaves so I had to have dialogue responses to each player response for each slave with responses to those.

This is an example of the scene dialogue with the various responses:

 

For an example of how complex I have gotten this is from the Property Slave quest I have made:

Opening day's initial dialogue:

 

Somewhat generic scene that has multiple dialogue sets used in several situations:

 

 

If you ever wonder why there are few mods with lots of dialogue choices this is why. It is a tedious pain in the ass.

[Content Consumer]

Content consumer, let me know when you are ready, I will get together some basic outlines of scenes and such.

It'll probably be a day or two. I'll send you a PM.

 

This is an example of a dialogue layout I did for the Assist a Customer scene:

Looks pretty straightforward. If it's okay, I'll use this as a framework for everything from now on...

Framework.rtf

Probably the most difficult part is that dialogue between an npc and the player is done in the dialogue tab while npc to npc dialogue is handled in the scene tab. With the scene dialogue for the Assist a Customer quest since I had 4 different slaves so I had to have dialogue responses to each player response for each slave with responses to those.

I've never done scenes, just basic dialogue. It doesn't look easy.

This is an example of the scene dialogue with the various responses:

 

For an example of how complex I have gotten this is from the Property Slave quest I have made:

Opening day's initial dialogue:

 

Somewhat generic scene that has multiple dialogue sets used in several situations:

 

 

If you ever wonder why there are few mods with lots of dialogue choices this is why. It is a tedious pain in the ass.

Yeah, it's not the easiest thing.

This is about the extent of my knowledge, and about as highly complex as I get:

 

 

[WaxenFigure]

So due to health issues, work and the pile of mods that I need to finish or have ideas for I am looking for some help with developing. Here are the projects I am looking for assistance on:

 

Captured Dreams: I am looking for help with dialogue, plain and simple. According to CGi I have 6700 lines of dialogue (v3 had about 5000) but I will probably add another 3000 - 4000 lines before this version is ready. Part of it will be filling out existing dialogue (more choices / responses) and the other will be for new quests / scenes. Knowing how to build dialogue in the CK and handle conditions for them is preferred (no scripting necessary).

 

For the Masses: This needs a major update to add the new items and handle items from other mods. I have a number of ideas on this but building the MCM menu's is something I am not very good at.

 

<New> Outfit Adjustments: I have a way in mind to be able to change and assign outfits to npc's (followers or not) but 90% of it will be MCM menu driven. Some of what I am looking to do with it is:

1- Remove outfits from npc's so you can dress them as you like

2- Build custom outfits and assign them to npc's

3- See what an npc currently has for an outfit

All it will do is allow you to change an outfit so there would not be any scripts running on npc's, it would just assign a new outfit to them.

 

There are a few others I have in mind but I have not looked at what is out there that is similar yet.

See this code:

 

ScriptName OutfitFactory hidden

; creates an outfit based on the form array - only armor will be copied, none objects will be skipped.
; returns none if the form array did not contain any valid armor
Outfit Function CreateOutfit(Form[] formArray) global native

; creates an outfit based on the actor's equipped armor - weapons will be skipped
; returns none if the actor has not equipped any valid armor.
Outfit Function CreateOutfitFromActor(Actor theActor) global native

; modify an existing outfit, only armor will be copied, none objects will be skipped.
Function CopyOutfit(Outfit from,Outfit to) global native

; updates an existing outfit based on the form array - only armor will be copied, none objects will be skipped.
Function UpdateOutfit(Form[] formArray,Outfit to) global native

This is a part of the Maria Eden mod, check with the author of that mod on whether and how you could use that outfit factory code.

 

No sense in reinventing the wheel.

[Guest]

 

Content consumer, let me know when you are ready, I will get together some basic outlines of scenes and such.

It'll probably be a day or two. I'll send you a PM.

 

This is an example of a dialogue layout I did for the Assist a Customer scene:

Looks pretty straightforward. If it's okay, I'll use this as a framework for everything from now on...

Framework.rtf

Probably the most difficult part is that dialogue between an npc and the player is done in the dialogue tab while npc to npc dialogue is handled in the scene tab. With the scene dialogue for the Assist a Customer quest since I had 4 different slaves so I had to have dialogue responses to each player response for each slave with responses to those.

I've never done scenes, just basic dialogue. It doesn't look easy.

This is an example of the scene dialogue with the various responses:

 

For an example of how complex I have gotten this is from the Property Slave quest I have made:

Opening day's initial dialogue:

 

Somewhat generic scene that has multiple dialogue sets used in several situations:

 

 

If you ever wonder why there are few mods with lots of dialogue choices this is why. It is a tedious pain in the ass.

Yeah, it's not the easiest thing.

This is about the extent of my knowledge, and about as highly complex as I get:

ab.jpg

 

 

 

how do i keep the dialogs like that? everytime i save and reload my esp the dialog windows becom a complete mess?

 

[Heromaster]

@Vel: You are not using DialogueViews? They are making complex branches an easy cake.

[Veladarius]

No, while the Dialogue Views is a good idea it isn't easy to use for complex dialogue, to me the view is too limited to make good use of. 

[Content Consumer]

how do i keep the dialogs like that? everytime i save and reload my esp the dialog windows becom a complete mess?

 

It happens to me a lot when I open up other mods, or DLC... all the branches get set right on top of each other, you have to move them around to see them. Is that what's happening to you?

I don't know why it would keep doing it, though... whenever I save the .esp it also saves the last position of all the branches and topics on the screen. There's something fishy about it, though, because if I go and open up another one or two other mods then come back to the first, it's still there, but if I open up three or more it disappears. Like the CK is keeping a buffer of positions or something bizarre like that.

Could be a setting in some .ini file, maybe? I haven't actually looked for that...

 

No, while the Dialogue Views is a good idea it isn't easy to use for complex dialogue, to me the view is too limited to make good use of. 

I agree it's a little difficult to use. Could be done a lot better. I like to see the relationships between topics, though, makes it easier for me to keep track of where the conversation is going at any given time. Get the conversation big enough, though, and it becomes more problematic to do that.

You do know you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, right? Zooming out too far makes the text entirely unreadable, but zoom out just a little bit gives a bit more space...

[Content Consumer]

 

Content consumer, let me know when you are ready, I will get together some basic outlines of scenes and such.

It'll probably be a day or two. I'll send you a PM.

 

 

 

 

Or three or four. Encountering unexpected problems.