Aspiring modder looking for help

[Dalamar]

Hello LoversLab

 

I've been very interested in modding ever since playing Skyrim (so not very long to be honest) and after seeing what other people managed to do, I wanted to give it a try myself. To be honest it didn't go very well although I was more successful than I expected at the same time. Never finished a mod though. Now with FO4 out, and me taking actual programming classes, I was hoping to jump into it again, this time with FO4.

 

So the help I am looking for is actually pretty simple. I am looking to join a team of modders who are willing to take a newbie under their wings. Someone who will deal with the more menial parts of coding, help out where necessary and generally assist while I learn the principles. I have some experience with C# and LSL as well as a little bit of Java if any of those help with papyrus.

 

I understand it's rather early on the mod cycle for FO4, but that is also a reason why I'm looking now. I have a bunch of ideas for mods, SFW as well as NSFW, and would love to see them come to life working with a like minded team as opposed of toiling away in my lonesome.

 

~Dalamar

[leatherliz]

Hello LoversLab

 

I've been very interested in modding ever since playing Skyrim (so not very long to be honest) and after seeing what other people managed to do, I wanted to give it a try myself. To be honest it didn't go very well although I was more successful than I expected at the same time. Never finished a mod though. Now with FO4 out, and me taking actual programming classes, I was hoping to jump into it again, this time with FO4.

 

So the help I am looking for is actually pretty simple. I am looking to join a team of modders who are willing to take a newbie under their wings. Someone who will deal with the more menial parts of coding, help out where necessary and generally assist while I learn the principles. I have some experience with C# and LSL as well as a little bit of Java if any of those help with papyrus.

 

I understand it's rather early on the mod cycle for FO4, but that is also a reason why I'm looking now. I have a bunch of ideas for mods, SFW as well as NSFW, and would love to see them come to life working with a like minded team as opposed of toiling away in my lonesome.

 

~Dalamar

 

It really kind of depends on what kind of mod you want to make, the variety of skills you will need increase with the ambitions of your mod, and really the vast bulk of mods are made by self-taught individuals making that one mod for themselves and sharing.

 

For starters, though, I would get the Creation Kit for Skyrim and start familiarizing yourself with that. It's not too different from the Construction Kit for Oblivion, even, and will be very similar to the one for FO4 once it's released.

 

Until the FO4 CK comes along FO4Edit will allow you to create plugins that modify game values. Even after the CK comes out FO4Edit will be useful for its additional features (like cleaning CK made plugins of dirty edits).

 

If you don't have access to Photoshop go get GIMP and the .dds plugin for it. It will cover most of your texture editing needs. It's free and open source.

 

If you're going to do any messing with meshes or any texturing more complex than a straight texture replacement Nifskope is a must.

 

Cipscis has some entry level tutorials for Papyrus scripting for Skyrim. Again, it will be largely similar to FO4 papyrus. Look up the official documentation for a wider reference. Might also be a good idea to check out SKSE and F4SE if you plan on any heavy or complex scripting.

 

Blender is a rather complex 3D modelling program, but, like GIMP, is free and open source. 3DS Max would work as well and I think has a 'free for personal use' license now. I might be thinking of something else on the license though.

 

There's kind of a run down on basic tools and some places to start learning. Many of them can be substituted for others, and I'm sure I overlooked a lot of smaller tools that do that one thing really well (B.A.E for extracting .BA2 archives for example).

[Galacticat42]

Hello Dalamar! It's great to see another budding programmer here at LL and in the Bethesda modding community in general. In my opinion and personal experience, if you want to get into modding, it's great to start small, get a feel for what you are capable of. From there, start making bigger mods down the line if you enjoy doing it.

 

Now unfortunately since modding is a hobby, modding groups do have the potential to be inconsistent. They do work when they feel like it or when they have the time for it, but if you can find some group with dedicated people, more power to you. Now, for mods, I would suggest you look into Papyrus and learn its syntax. Papyrus is basically Bethesda's rebranding of Lua, which is based off of C++. However since you have Java under your belt, I would imagine you will already know much of the 'global syntax' from language to language (With the exception of Microsoft's C#... Because they're special). So by the time that the F4SE comes out of alpha, all you would have to do is look up the API's and plug away.

[Ramses]

leatherliz covered the basics. I'll just add that for an aspiring modder, you picked the worst platform to start on. Bethesda's "Creation Engine" is the single-most, biggest pile of coding horseshit ever made. It's a disaster and full of quirks, bugs and general fuck ups that are a nightmare, even for the most experienced modder. Honestly, if I were you, I'd start digging into Valve's Source 2 engine, since Half-Life 3 will be coming out and that will put you way out front on the modder scene.

 

My two cents.

[leatherliz]

... Half-Life 3 will be coming out...

 

This decade? Don't hold your breath for a game that hasn't been confirmed to even be in production. After 11 years since Half Life 2 it is just as likely to be another Duke Nukem Forever. (I hope not)

 

If you want to get into modding as a vector for a game development job, yes, go do Source 2, Unreal 4, etc., but if it's just a hobby? Mod the games you want to play. If that means FO4, look forward to the Creation Kit and the low barrier of entry it provides.

[Ramses]

 

... Half-Life 3 will be coming out...

 

This decade? Don't hold your breath for a game that hasn't been confirmed to even be in production. After 11 years since Half Life 2 it is just as likely to be another Duke Nukem Forever. (I hope not)

 

Ok then what's this?

 

https://steamdb.info/sub/66300/

 

I'd call that Half Life 3 confirmed.

[Guest MonsterFish]

Yeah well we knew Star Citizen was coming out back when they were still building the Tower of Babylon.

[leatherliz]

 

Ok then what's this?

 

https://steamdb.info/sub/66300/

 

I'd call that Half Life 3 confirmed.

 

 

It's a name in a database. It could be an employee trolling, it could be a placeholder for GabeN only knows what, or it could be HL3 will come out in time for christmas and was the best kept secret in the history of video games.

 

There have been "leaks" before that turned out to be nothing. I will be pleasantly surprised if anything substantial comes from Valve regarding HL3 immediately following this. Say, the next 3-4 months.

 

Not gonna hold my breath to do the squealing fangirl routine until there's a press release or something official from Valve.

[Galacticat42]

Yeah well we knew Star Citizen was coming out back when they were still building the Tower of Babylon.

 

Hahahaha, if that's the case, everyone knew that Duke Nukem Forever was coming out at the dawn of time.

[Dalamar]

Thank you for the advice. I want to start with something that I am actually interested in and as I don't play half-life and want to make mods that I can enjoy too (it also helps to know the game you're making the mods for I'd think).

 

I figure I'll wait for the creation kit to come out and then start playing around with it.

[vram1974]

Thank you for the advice. I want to start with something that I am actually interested in and as I don't play half-life and want to make mods that I can enjoy too (it also helps to know the game you're making the mods for I'd think).

 

I figure I'll wait for the creation kit to come out and then start playing around with it.

 

You should familiarize yourself with FO4Edit first and get your head around the basic inner workings of the structure required for modding. GECK won't drop for months yet.