Any books on modding?

[FetishCo]

Are there any decent books that tell you how to mod games like skyrim?

[Nergui]

Firstly, learn and always apply the three golden rules of game modding

1. Make a backup before editing any files

2. Check that you have made a backup before editing any files

3. Double check that you have made a backup before editing any files

Following these rules will save you the trouble of reinstalling a game because you screwed up a file.

 

There aren't any books as far as I'm aware. The majority of information about mod creation is in short guides. There are some excellent tutorials on the Creation Kit Wiki.

http://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Tutorials

 

A good start is making a note of anything you think could be better or don't like while playing. For example, this is a list I made up for FO4 prior to it's CK being released -

 

 

note, anything with a "- " prefix has been completed, anything with a "x " prefix is beyond my current skills or is no longer needed

 

- adjust perk level requirements for Gun Nut, Armourer, Science!, Blacksmith
- enable ballistic weave mod for more clothing where possible
- adjust bonuses and perk reqs for vault suit mods or add ballistic weave mod
x expand hangman's alley and relocate walls
? reduce or remove chance for 'tries reset' when hacking
- adjust weapon mod perk requirements
- add 5.56mm minigun or change 3 barrel mod caliber and/or increase damage
- increase minigun 3 barrel damage
- increase laser weapon ammunition capacity
- increase institute base weapon damage
- adjust scope zoom, short reduce, long increase
- increase .50 receiver base damage to 2 x .308 damage
- change recon scope crosshair
- adjust range penalty from suppressor
- adjust sneak attack to 2.5, 3, 4
- add recipe for berry mentats with wild tarberry
- reduce range penalty for short ported barrel on assault rifle
- add 'silent' to top two laser mods
x reduce shipment prices
disable dead crops at sunshine tidings
disable dead ghouls at sunshine tidings
- edit cooking recipes from dirty water to purified water
- edit 'gear' component name to 'gears'
x reduce weight of rpg, combat rifle and assault rifle
x change ammunition name .308 to 7.62
x reduce laser weapon spread and recoil
x change combat rifle .38 receiver to 5.56 and adjust damage
x add 7.62 semi-auto and auto receivers to assault rifle
x add .44 receiver to submachinegun.

 

 

 

Then work out how to do it with extensive searches and looking at other people's mods.

 

Also, you should get a few extra programs.

a graphics program (Gimp (free) or Photoshop (if you're rich))

a text editor (Notepad++ or EditPadLite (both free))

an image viewer (IrfanView is excellent)

a file compare utility (WinMerge while old is excellent, may not work with Win8.1 or Win10)

7-Zip (don't bother with any other file compression utility)

[FetishCo]

Firstly, learn and always apply the three golden rules of game modding

1. Make a backup before editing any files

2. Check that you have made a backup before editing any files

3. Double check that you have made a backup before editing any files

Following these rules will save you the trouble of reinstalling a game because you screwed up a file.

 

There aren't any books as far as I'm aware. The majority of information about mod creation is in short guides. There are some excellent tutorials on the Creation Kit Wiki.

http://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Tutorials

 

A good start is making a note of anything you think could be better or don't like while playing. For example, this is a list I made up for FO4 prior to it's CK being released -

 

 

note, anything with a "- " prefix has been completed, anything with a "x " prefix is beyond my current skills or is no longer needed

 

- adjust perk level requirements for Gun Nut, Armourer, Science!, Blacksmith

- enable ballistic weave mod for more clothing where possible

- adjust bonuses and perk reqs for vault suit mods or add ballistic weave mod

x expand hangman's alley and relocate walls

? reduce or remove chance for 'tries reset' when hacking

- adjust weapon mod perk requirements

- add 5.56mm minigun or change 3 barrel mod caliber and/or increase damage

- increase minigun 3 barrel damage

- increase laser weapon ammunition capacity

- increase institute base weapon damage

- adjust scope zoom, short reduce, long increase

- increase .50 receiver base damage to 2 x .308 damage

- change recon scope crosshair

- adjust range penalty from suppressor

- adjust sneak attack to 2.5, 3, 4

- add recipe for berry mentats with wild tarberry

- reduce range penalty for short ported barrel on assault rifle

- add 'silent' to top two laser mods

x reduce shipment prices

disable dead crops at sunshine tidings

disable dead ghouls at sunshine tidings

- edit cooking recipes from dirty water to purified water

- edit 'gear' component name to 'gears'

x reduce weight of rpg, combat rifle and assault rifle

x change ammunition name .308 to 7.62

x reduce laser weapon spread and recoil

x change combat rifle .38 receiver to 5.56 and adjust damage

x add 7.62 semi-auto and auto receivers to assault rifle

x add .44 receiver to submachinegun.

 

 

 

Then work out how to do it with extensive searches and looking at other people's mods.

 

Also, you should get a few extra programs.

a graphics program (Gimp (free) or Photoshop (if you're rich))

a text editor (Notepad++ or EditPadLite (both free))

an image viewer (IrfanView is excellent)

a file compare utility (WinMerge while old is excellent, may not work with Win8.1 or Win10)

7-Zip (don't bother with any other file compression utility)

Thanks for the info!! I will check out the wiki. I guess the days of physical books is coming to a end.

[sadbadmac]

This is what I found a while ago: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54609/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D54609%26preview%3D&pUp=1 

 

There is a PDF File in the Files Section which includes a really detailed guide about modding. Its not neccessarily about how to mod but how to mod in general e.g. what do you need to mod, how do you upload and where etc. 

 

And yea, physical books explicitly about Skyrim Modding don't really exist. As for Modding in general you should start learning a programming language maybe. I don't know for sure since I only know Java (kek) but in Video Games they usually use some variation of C/C++. Its a diffcult language since its fairly complicated and has a lot of "content" but its the language most hackers use e.g. There are a lot of books out there that teach you how to use C/C++, Python or even Java if thats your thing.

 

Happy reading and modding!