Ooo, me!! Ninette the She-Hulk is Arch-Mage, and she hates those robes. I don’t even remember where she stashed them. Your amulet looks great, ghastley! It will look really good on a male, too.

Hofi’s hair is lovely. I’m glad you made this for her!

Ooh, she is pretty, and I love her hair! Nice job on that amulet! That looks Awesome! I'll have to look up the Articulation one, don't know what that enchantment is (unless my guess at speechcraft is correct, lol).

Well, of course, it's harder than it looks. I made the Ground Object model, and it won't show in the game. I thought at first that it had something to do with two NiShapes, but the circlets do that, so that's not the answer.

Looks OK in NifSkope, though.

Essentially the ground mesh is the "armour" reconfigured as a misc object (so it has collision etc.) I'm trying to make this the simple case of a rigid object, although I note that some amulets were build with joints in the ground meshes (articulated!) so the pendant could move separately from the necklace. The texturing of the mesh pieces should be identical to that in the worn meshes, but there's something I'm missing that leaves it invisible in-game.

Edit: it turns out that the same "Skinned" flag that makes outfits float on their own if you don't select it is the one that makes ground objects disappear if you do. And I've found the right setting for the INV block to get the rotation right, so it's onward with the male meshes and the script.

If anyone wants to try the Archmage Amulet before it's released, get it here

The 0.1 version doesn't put it into the game world, so you'll have to use the console to add it. That will let you check it out before going all the way through the quest line. For release, I'll get the Story Manager to tell me when the player enters the Archmage's Quarters after completing the quest line, and add it to a chest, or just put it on a table and enable it then.

Woo Hoo, Thank you Ghastley!!!!!

Awesome, thank you ghastley!! I PMed you a report.

Thank you so much for sharing this! I love your amulet! It’s very exciting to have a completely new item that fits perfectly into the game and replaces provides an alternative to a major quest reward that I never liked.

I just discovered that you don't get the unhooded robes in the vanilla game, so my idea of providing the amulet with them won't work. They're placed on a table in the Archmage's quarters, and disabled, so I assumed they got enabled at the end of the quest line. They don't.

The Unofficial Patch 2.0.4 or later enables them. I may just include instructions to enable them if you don't have it, since it's already a permanent ref, and has a fixed RefID.

prid 77d06
enable

Thanks, Ghastley!

And of course, I couldn't be satisfied with that - Version 0.3 has a quest triggered by the Story Manager when you first get the Archmage's Robes, that simply enables the un-hooded version and the amulet next to it. If you've already done the quest, and have the robes, then dropping them and picking them back up does it.

I also remembered to add the script to the unhooded robes to remove the amulet, so you can't cheat any more!

Ha! I love the way you keep improving your mods! Downloaded, and Thank you!

Beautiful! 0.3 works perfectly. The unequip messages are a thoughtful touch. Ninette got her Archmage robes out of the cupboard in her dorm room, and the hoodless robe and Amulet were right there when she entered the Archmage’s apartment.

Now she has incentive to wear her Expert and Master robes and show off her new Amulet. It also looks great with the open-collared robes from Common Clothes. So far she’s dancing around her room trying on the clothes and circlets that she has collected but never worn. Finally Ninette is interested in her appearance!

Thank you so much for sharing this, ghastley!

Somehow I made a landscape tear nowhere near where I was working on my Rocky Top cottage, and it took me deleting EVERY ONE of my landscape edits to resolve it. I don’t know how I would ever have found it without TES5Edit. Ugh. I had my test character (Gritsen) sit on the porch and watched traffic through Rorikstead while I drank some tea for a while afterward. I’m enjoying the road before I probably break it while NavMeshing.

A lot of times you can just use "Soften Vertices" to repair a tear in the mesh. It is an extremely powerful tool, and can repair a huge tear in one click.

Thank you, mALX! That’s a great tip. I’m trying to stay compatible with another mod, which is probably more than I should have attempted on my first try. I put in a garden that now I don’t like because it looks out of place, so my next task is removing it. I don’t want my cottage to look too different from the rest of the village. I should have picked a spot in the middle of nowhere, but this is where I want my house! Sigh.

So to take a break I made a panty raid mod for one of my characters, I’m sure I don’t need to say whose idea this was. Some of Lil’s “armor” is quite distracting when she bends, so I got her some underwear. It was too boring to buy them from the vendor so I made a leveled list. Now some bandits have a cute pair of panties stuffed in their loot chests or pockets.

I have personally seen that "soften vertices" completely heal an enormous tear with one click when set at "5." Saved my life! In Oblivion, click on "W" to show only the wire framing of the area, and carefully draw the two wires where the mesh is torn back together. When the torn is healed, click "W" again and you'll find it looks perfect again.

I don't understand why lessons like these aren't taught in the classes, I think that would be an important bit of info for new modders who are most apt to tear it.

Much to my dismay I got the same land tear at the border again, and this time I finally figured it out. It’s from a landscape edit in the other mod that I’m testing mine with to make sure they’re compatible. A simple load order swap fixed the problem. *head-desk*

mALX, I thought of your patio areas when I saw this resource today: Wicker Set (furniture) by Garnet.

Yeah, I love that wicker set! It looks just like one my Grandmother had in her breezeway we used to sit in waiting for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners to be cooked.

Garnet (Flintone on Nexus) is a spectacular modder, he is the one that made that Awesome Ayleid palace in the sky "Theryon" that I used as Malan's lair in my story.

If anyone else wants to try making a Build-Your-Own home, I've been writing up the process as I built Ilinalta Den.

Get your cheat sheet here.

This is fantastic! Thank you so much for posting this!!!!

Note that it will get updated whenever I think of anything else, so just keep the link, rather than downloading the page. Some of it may need correcting!

I just added a note about adding items and the need to start a new game for testing. And updated it again to fix typo's, thus making some new ones, ...

Now the Argonian Hearthfires is just about done - I should be uploading it to the Nexus soon - I'm starting to decide on the next one.

Khajiits need something, but the majority in the game are nomadic, so I'm looking at the idea of a custom carriage/cart instead of a house. I noticed both a touring carriages mod (moving carriages to replace the "fast travel" variety) and a "gypsy" house on wheels mod that's a mobile camp-site.

I'm considering something in between. This would be a one-person cart to carry goods, covered, and with configuration options you can change in-game, so you can sleep in the back, store things in it, etc. No forge, no mannequins, but maybe a realistic trader's wagon, that serves as a mobile home. I'm assuming a Khajiit with a spouse and kids would find a conventional house as a base, so no provision for them.

There are already animations for driver and passenger to enter/exit and use a cart. There doesn't seem to be anything for hitching/unhitching the horse, just a script function to link them that apparently instantly moves the horse. The trees on the cart are fixed, and the only parts that animate are the wheels and the front axle. The fixed trees may be the reason for the lack of horse entry/exit animations. That may mean a fade-out while it happens.

To make it a bit more interesting, the cart would need to be purchased from a wainwright who's retired because he lost his tools to bandits. I.e. a few radiant fetch quests with the tools as quest items. Saw, hammer, spokeshave/drawknife, perhaps more. Need to decide where he lives and works (once he has his tools back). Minor town would be best, maybe Rorikstead has most open space nearby.

What a wonderful idea! I've been thinking about RPing a Khajiit trader in Skyrim sometime in the future. I know the gypsy cart you speak of - I liked the concept, but found the details a bit overwhelming and unrealistic. If you are shooting for something simpler I'd definitely watch this space (or whatever new thread you create for this mod).

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

A lot will depend on whether I can find a good way to re-configure the cart (it may need "animations" in the nif to hide/show parts) so that you can sleep it, haul goods in it, at different times. A removable canopy would work the same way.

I noted that Khajiits using carts have a run of bad luck in the game. There are two sets of dead ones, and a third instance of a bandit ambush that kills them as a random encounter. If other people notice that, it might not make a popular mod!

Ha ha, you’re right about the bad luck! Uh oh!

Wow, another awesome ghastley mod idea. Particularly suited to Khajiit, but an itinerant merchant of any race (such as a Redguard in your Alik'r heavy armor ) would be overjoyed with a real cart or wagon as a mobile home base. Yay for no mannequins, I’m still scarred from my last incident with them!

I have JK’s Rorikstead and Expanded Towns and Cities Rorikstead already installed (in separate profiles) if you want me to screenshot any sites to check for compatibility for your wainwright. Your quest idea sounds great, and much more satisfying than a straight-out purchase.

Thank you so much for this, Ghastley!

Like "Carah's Caravan Redux" from Oblivion?






http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/101/...-1364837975.jpg



http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/101/...-1366657579.jpg



Interior:


http://blog-imgs-31-origin.fc2.com/o/b/l/o...i/caravan07.jpg




http://www.egg-of-time.us/downloads/obli/h...der/c/ccr01.jpg

Started a new thread, and got a new idea that will simplify making the mod (no dialog required).

Holy Cow, what is up with that? (Stormcloaks taking pot shots?)

On my Orc Hearthfires mod, I've had to warn a couple of users that waiting for a courier doesn't work, so I thought I'd make a note here, so it doesn't get lost.

The way the courier quest works in Skyrim is that the event of the player changing location triggers a quest script to look in the "postbox" to see if there's anything to deiver. If any quest has added an item the container, then the courier is spawned near the player and runs up and delivers it.

That means that waiting for a courier when you expect one, is the one thing that's guaranteed to avoid him. He won't spawn until you travel to a different location, and cause the ChangeLocation event for the Story Manager to pass on. Locations are a bit of a vague concept, as the whole of Skyrim is one, and contains child locations for each hold, which contain... but entering or leaving a walled city is definitely always a location change.

There appears to be a point where the courier gives up, and the quest cancels, only to restart when you change location again (there's still a pending item in the container). That means you can't SQV WICourier and get much useful info. Just keep roaming around, and he'll come eventually.

Good to know, thanks for the heads up!

I did my first bit of modding in Claire's game .... simple stuff. I put a "trash barrel" inside of Breezehome. This is a barrel which respawns, making it seem like if Claire puts something in there, Lucia will eventually take the trash out. I got this idea from an Oblivion mod. Breezehome is also very dark, I've noticed, so I tried adding some candles to Claire's bedroom. These don't add much light, so I'm going to try to find something grander. Maybe even a candelabra.

Woo, congratulations, Renee! That is awesome!

The candles and the actual lights are separate items in the Creation Kit. Can you see the pale yellow-whitish looking lightbulb shaped things floating in the air? If not try hitting the M key to turn marker view on so you can see them. If you copy one of those and move it near the candle, the candle will look like it’s giving off light. (Just be careful not to add too many light sources, because problems.)

I think that making a living space with a character is some of the best fun in the game!

Oh hey, thanks. Yeah, I read something about ambient light and the way it works, but i haven't gotten that far in my CK studying yet, to really make it have an effect. I'm actually learning the Oblivion CS, not the Skyrim CK, but the two programs have enough similarites (so far) that I've been able to take what I learn from TES4, and use it in Skyrim. Anyways, I'll look for that lightbulb thingie next time I'm gaming & building.



It really makes a difference. Like combining the building abilities of Sims with Skyrim, sort of. I can't wait to mess around with some Hearthfire homes.

Me too, and playing IN them after making them makes the game that much more fun! (imho)

I have added a Spare Bed inside of Dragonsreach's Living Quarters. My arrogant high elf, Master Baytor, is "above" paying for some room in a noisy inn, so I added this bed, with the idea that the people of Dragonsreach finally give in, and let him crash in their precious home.

See, this is the sort of thing I used to have to "pretend" on Xbox. Ha ha ha!

Now Misa will sneak into his room and watch, BWAAHAA!

Yay Renee! That sounds perfect for him.

I have a mod of most of my added NPCs with them placed in the world that I use in most of my games. However there are a few NPCs that I’d like to add just in some games for specific purposes, but I don’t want to create a bunch of separate mod clutter for them. I’m thinking that I could create them in my existing NPC mod but not place them, instead using placeatme to spawn them and then using whatever follower or re-homing mods I have active to move them where they need to go in that game. Is there any reason not to do it that way? This is just for me, so I’m not worried about what potential mod users will think.

Stick your NPCs in a holding cell and move them. Then they keep the same RefIDs, and are easier to work with, plus you can't accidentally spawn more than one copy.

Awesome, that’s what I’ll do then. Thank you, ghastley!

Most of my CK adventures lately have been on Jerric’s behalf. Dar-Ma and Rhano have made their separate ways to Skyrim. Rhano is traveling with Jerric right now. I’ve create some new enchantments so that Jerric can wear his ring of Hump You Fetching Mages (spell absorption), the Jewel of the Rumare (waterbreathing and fortify carry weight), and a Talos amulet given to him by a brother Blade from his story in his Skyrim games.

The most rewarding development took about a year of fiddling before a simple solution presented itself. Jerric has carried Buffy’s gift Jerric’s Stone with him since the moment he opened the package. Now with a single keystroke he has the ability to use it in his game to fully recharge his magicka. It takes a day for Jerric’s Stone to naturally refill itself with magicka, so using it is a once-per-day Greater Power in game terms. So now when I put up a screenshot of Jerric healing himself or flinging that fatal burst of frost with a swirl of blue surrounding him, that’s Buffy’s gift to the rescue!

Grits, I read to Buffy how well the stone has worked out for Jerric. Her reaction?

That is a pretty neat idea; a magic stone which recharges its own magicka.

GAAAAAAH, you made a mod and didn't tell me? Awesome!!! What other mods have you kept secret?

No no. I just came up the the idea to support the letter Buffy sent gifting Jerric with a (pretend) stone as described and quoted by Grits. It was Grits who applied her magicks to the CK and actually brought the stone to life in Jerric's game.

Oh, WHEW! Okay, have to go make all the necessary corrections in my diary...

Here’s the spell I’m having problems with today: Summon Katria for 120 seconds.

I’ve made it a Conjuration Apprentice level spell so that it’s accessible to anyone with the base amount of magicka. There’s no quest condition or script to add the spell automatically, you just add the spell or tome with the console at the player’s discretion. Summoned Katria is a level 40 new NPC so as not to cause trouble with the real Katria. She is ghostly and has the correct combat style and equipment.

The trouble is that she doesn’t speak at all. She is not a follower so she won’t have any follower dialog, but I want her to use the combat taunts that she uses when she’s fighting at the player’s side during the questline. The Summonable Katria uses Katria’s voice type.

I’m over my head if there are checks in the dialog to see if Katria is saying the taunts, the way Marcurio is the only one who will say some of the lines in his voice type.

I am not expert on dialog, but I would think that so long as you had her Voice Type set to DLC1LD_FemaleNordUniqueKatria that would be enough.

I took a quick look and her Detection dialogue is conditioned on GetIsAliasRef for Alias:Katria but it's curiously shared, even though she's only in one quest.

That means you can use it, but you may have to add a dialog quest if she's not already connected to one. If her alias is Katria in your quest, she may just use it anyway, or else you can copy her topics over to yours.

It's possible to make any existing dialog shared but it's much simpler when that's already the case.

Aha, thank you very much! Sounds promising, I need to dig in and learn some new things. I’ve done trainer dialog for some NPCs, but that’s it. Refreshing my memory of that is a good place to start.

I wonder if it is set up as shared because there was a plan to make her summonable at the end of the quests, like Arniel’s Shade. I’ve never had a character who completed Arniel’s Endeavor, funnily enough. The uesp page says his shade uses zombie dialog, which sounds disappointing.

It was a lot of work, but I was able to make the Winterhold Home I made for my grown up Sofie and Lucia's games and make it Hearthfire/adoption compatible. This article details how.

I also had to use the Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions mod, and use the Bless House spell it provides to set the home as my official house. I tried it without the mod, but the game would not give me the option to adopt. My guess is that there is a setting somewhere that tells the game what your house is, and with a modded house that never gets updated.