Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Bethesda Announces Creation Kit for Skyrim!

Bethesda loves modders! They have announced that they will be releasing a Creation Kit for Skyrim on the Bethesda Blog. Also check what Gstaff has to say at the BGS Forums: "Yes it does. We've always been impressed with what the community has done with our tools. Like the Elder Scrolls Construction Set for Morrowind and Oblivion, we plan to release Creation Kit so you guys can mod Skyrim."

Oh, Bethesda, how much do I love thee? And how much does my fiance dread this coming November?!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Arch-Mage's Quarters Revamp Completed













The Arch-Mage's Quarters was completed rather quickly. It was just some minor fixes, redecorating, and adding a few things. Easy-peasy! The vanilla dresser at the foot of the bed was set to respawn so I replaced it with one that doesn't. Added a few more containers. Replaced some of the decor with new stuff, including the bed. I removed the spellmaking and enchanting altars because those are included in the Laboratory. The Enchanted Chest had to stay since it is referenced by quests, scripts, and dialogue, however, it got a facelift thanks to Meo's Ayleid Clutter. The only other thing I added was a teleport that will take to you the Teleport Room (goes to all of the other rooms in the tower.) The pathgrid was slightly adjusted to accommodate the new teleporter. That's it!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Companion Friendliness Modding

You may have heard of Emma, she is the creator of many wonderful Morrowind and Oblivion mods including Companion Vilja. She has posted a topic at BGS Forums called Looking for Companion Friendly Houses, it contains a list of companion friendly houses and information on how to create them.

The basic requirements are:
* Pathgridding - very important for the companion to be able to navigate.
* Unowned beds & chairs - so companions can sleep and sit down, they won't do so if these have an owner.

I want Guild Benefits to be companion friendly, after all you own your bedroom in the guild halls so your companion should be able to stay there with you. However, there was a problem... three of my rooms were accessible to other NPCs who decided they would like to use my "unowned" chairs and beds themselves. We don't want strangers in our bedrooms, this just won't do! Thankfully PrincessStomper had a suggestion, make the furniture owned by the PlayerFaction since companions belong to the PlayerFaction they should be able to use them while keeping other NPCs from doing so. Guess what? It worked!

Advanced requirements for public & semi-public places:
* Furniture owned by PlayerFaction (for use by player and companions only)

Last night I went around to all of my beds and furniture (and my food items just to be sure) changing them to owned by PlayerFaction. I went in game to spy on the worst offender, Contumelorius Florius in Chorrol. I took all the food from his room and the rest of the basement, leaving only the PlayerFaction owned food in my room. Then waited for him to come downstairs for supper. He went to his room looking for food, finding none he walked out toward my bedroom door. He stopped just outside, then turned around and went back into his and just stood there like a dummy. It was so funny to watch!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Arch-Mage's Dining Hall is Complete














Its finally done. The tedium was worth it. Look how pretty! I'm still thinking about whether or not to add a bartender.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Brain Purge, I had to get all this stuff out...

This week I've been:
* Working on Guild Benefits in the Arch Mage's Dining Hall. Removed a bunch of food and drink from the mod that was just too much, left in enough to make things interesting. That allowed me to remove the two banquet tables that were blocking shelves that have Ayleid clutter on display. Put the Ayleid crystals above all the dinner tables, very pretty! Added Meo's Winecellar wine racks and a couple crates to the beverage serving area. And started arranging the foods on the central banquet tables. That means the Dining Hall is almost complete!

* Updates and corrections on Phaedra's Elder Scrolls & Fallout. Fixed minor text errors and broken links throughout, especially on Friends Websites and My Favorite Elder Scrolls & Fallout Links. Updated the Zombie section of About Me with pictures from ZomBcon 2010. Reorganized the Modding Requests page since Shezrie's Towns was released last month. Updated and organized WIPz Guild Benefits page. And finally, I also created new buttons for people who want to link to my website and blog:




* Took last night off to finish reading a book. I think this was good for me, my brain feels quite refreshed. Ideas are popping into my head this morning which I'll detail below...


Ideas:
* ??? Add a bartender NPC to the Dining Hall? This will need dialogue and scripting. I will need to consult tutorials and may need to ask for help. But it would liven things up in the Dining Hall and just be plain cool.

* ??? Where to put Traven's grave: in the private Alchemy Garden or the public one at the University? Also Feek had the idea to have his gravestone give a temporary fortify magicka like the Ayleid Wells. There is already a Well in the AM's Lab, so how about a temporary shield or absorb magicka?

* ??? Do I still want a special staff for the new Arch Mage? If so this post at OREF has some links to some promising ones. Also what enchantment on staff?


To Do List:
* Finish arranging the food on the banquet tables.

* Take and post screenshots of the finished Dining Hall.

* Check food in the Guild Hall rooms, if there is un-cooked meat replace it with cooked meat. See if any other food changes would look nice.

* Decide which area to work on next. Revamp Arch Mage's Quarters (bedroom); or begin building the Library, Alchemy Garden, or Guests' Quarters. I'm thinking Library or Alchemy Garden, leaning a bit more towards Alchemy Garden.

* Start releasing misc resources. A bunch of stuff is ready, only need screenshots and readmes. Ready to go: colored quills, fancy folded cloths, misc clutter items, and mini-ayleid well architectural piece. Late day edit: Thinking on this there are some more goodies in other folders, various things I've played with that may be resource worthy (some signs come to mind.) I'll have to check those out too.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to finish Guild Benefits. The extra challenge I'm posing to myself is to finish before Skyrim is released, by this I mean done including any bug fixes and little tweaks... everything. So much is already complete there is no reason this shouldn't be possible. There are no other Bethesda games that are due out to distract me and I've played New Vegas enough to get it out of my system for now.

My creative juices are flowing, new ideas are coming once again. (I've figured out what to do with Hannibal Traven...) Oblivion is back to a clean installation plus the necessary resources. TES4Edit is up to date, such a wonderful tool! I'm just about ready to begin.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Vegas Mod: Goodsprings Camper










Simple house mod released today for Fallout: New Vegas. Goodsprings Camper is next to the Prospector Saloon. It provides you with a safe place to sleep and store your goods. Fast travel is provided to the camper via its own map marker. There is a plate of food, one bottle of dirty water, and one pickable maize plant. Nothing overpowering in this mod, just a basic home.

In other news Bethesda has finally announced Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. 2011 is going to be an awesome year!!!