Outfit planning and fiddling with settlements questions

[Morferous]

Hello, all.

 

I am finally playing FO4 and of course doing a bit adult mod planning on the side. I am starting from a scratch. Looks like I am hitting in to a wall with few things.

 

1. Settler AI. This is more of a settlement planning question than mod creating question. I know that settlers are placed to world, when you approach the area. This makes them to appear in weird places and teleport to locations they shouldn't be. I have been trying to see, if anyone has managed to make fixes for that, but I came empty handed.

 

Have I missed something? I decided to ask here, because adult modding community tends to have more ideas about keeping - at least certain - NPCs in correct locations in settlements.

 

I know it is wonky and probably hard to do, so I might just have to scrap my plans for settlement types I had in mind.

 

2. I made a bunch of plans for FO4 adult outfits. I might have some time work with them over spring and summer. As most people, I am hitting in to 3Ds Max requirement. I do not currently have student status and there is no way I could pay 1600e per year for a tool that I wouldn't use for actual work.

 

Another conversation about this matter hinted that Blender might be able to do the same thing. Neither of participants had got it to working. Does anyone know if it is actually possible to use Blender instead of 3Ds Max? If so, then how?

 

Thank you for any replies.

[Guest]

1. What sort of weird locations are you talking about? One of the commons issues is settlers appearing on top of houses even though there's no way to get there. This is mos common in sanctuary and there's a mod that fixes that problem. I forget what it's called

 

2. Personally I prefer 3D Max and I got the license because I'm a recent college grad and I still had access to my school email and stuff. Anyway, Blender is a viable option and it should work. After downloading blender you need plugins still to get stuff to work. I'm pretty sure .obj should import and export no problem but you need the nif plugin to get nifs to work. You should also be aware that blender switches their y and z axis for some reason. I'm not too proficient in blender but I have no idea if changing the axis is possible. This is a problem because when you make the outfit, it will look fine in outfit studio but when you loaded it up in game and the CK it will be rotated the wrong way.

[Morferous]

1. What sort of weird locations are you talking about? One of the commons issues is settlers appearing on top of houses even though there's no way to get there. This is mos common in sanctuary and there's a mod that fixes that problem. I forget what it's called

 

2. Personally I prefer 3D Max and I got the license because I'm a recent college grad and I still had access to my school email and stuff. Anyway, Blender is a viable option and it should work. After downloading blender you need plugins still to get stuff to work. I'm pretty sure .obj should import and export no problem but you need the nif plugin to get nifs to work. You should also be aware that blender switches their y and z axis for some reason. I'm not too proficient in blender but I have no idea if changing the axis is possible. This is a problem because when you make the outfit, it will look fine in outfit studio but when you loaded it up in game and the CK it will be rotated the wrong way.

 

1. Most common in Sanctuary and there is a mod that fixes that problem? I will try to look for it.

 

2. Thanks for the heads up with Blender. That I didn't knew.

 

I just realized that I might not need student status. I am doing studies at evenings, but I do not have day student status. However, I just checked and the school has 3Ds Max licenses, which may qualify me as a student. I was going to take one of the courses anyway over the summer. I will check out Blender, if signing for the course does not make me eligible for student license.

[Guest]

 

1. What sort of weird locations are you talking about? One of the commons issues is settlers appearing on top of houses even though there's no way to get there. This is mos common in sanctuary and there's a mod that fixes that problem. I forget what it's called

 

2. Personally I prefer 3D Max and I got the license because I'm a recent college grad and I still had access to my school email and stuff. Anyway, Blender is a viable option and it should work. After downloading blender you need plugins still to get stuff to work. I'm pretty sure .obj should import and export no problem but you need the nif plugin to get nifs to work. You should also be aware that blender switches their y and z axis for some reason. I'm not too proficient in blender but I have no idea if changing the axis is possible. This is a problem because when you make the outfit, it will look fine in outfit studio but when you loaded it up in game and the CK it will be rotated the wrong way.

 

1. Most common in Sanctuary and there is a mod that fixes that problem? I will try to look for it.

 

2. Thanks for the heads up with Blender. That I didn't knew.

 

I just realized that I might not need student status. I am doing studies at evenings, but I do not have day student status. However, I just checked and the school has 3Ds Max licenses, which may qualify me as a student. I was going to take one of the courses anyway over the summer. I will check out Blender, if signing for the course does not make me eligible for student license.

 

1. Okay I was incorrect about this. I mistakenly confused this mod with one that enable NPCs to be able to access a building if it's more than 1 story high. It seems that the weird NPC behavior of them appearing on the roof or other strange places is an engine limitation. When ever you exit a cell and it reloads, it tries to place NPCs based on assigned coordinates where they would be best placed. Unfortunately, the engine doesn't recognize that some areas aren't as sensible as others. As far as I know there isn't a fix. The fact that there isn't a fix yet makes me believe that it may not be possible but I could be wrong.

 

2. Yes I have a strong preference for 3D Max over Blender but honestly it's whatever program you feel comfortable with.

[Morferous]

That is how I have understood this, after reading articles and doing tests in game.

 

Some parts of the issue could be solved by space management. After that it would almost be enough to prevent them from trying to prevent them from teleporting to get weapons from chests. That is the hands down most annoying feature of the game. Maybe some sort of spell effect could prevent that, if I can't find script that manages it.

 

I have to check what sort of scripts others have been making and what I can find from Fallout 4 CK.

 

I also need to check which lock mod works best. I read through all mod pages I could find, but each had comments pointing out possible issues with them.

[robinhood11]

Just a tip:

Outfit Studio is also a strong tool for importing/exporting nifs into .obj files and vice versa. If you exported it into a .obj it's way easier to handle and you can just import it into blender (or 3ds max if you'll get it) and start editing. If you're finished with the edits just export the .obj and convert it into a .nif with Outfit Studio, also add the materials, weights and all the other stuff via Outfit Studio.

 

For texturing I strongly recommend Photoshop, because it has a 3d Viewer where you can import .obj files and paint ON the armor/cloth. The free alternative would be GIMP, which I guess is also Ok, but (I think) is lacking the 3d feature (which you don't need, but makes it imho easier to texture).