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NOTE: I am currently working on a beginners mod for those of you following the
construction set tutorials on these pages. It is a mod called Balmora West, and is
situated on the west side of the mountains from Balmora. It is still work in progress,
and I am open to any suggestions regarding the content.
Take a look at it when you get chance, and maybe when you've completed the beginner's tuorial
and the House Mod tutorials, you might be able to help out a bit.
The first tutorial covered the use of the CS for the beginner including : opening
and loading a mod, keyboard shortcuts, coordinate system, copying and pasting another
house into Moonrest in the Five Keys of Azura mod.
The second tutorial set up the interior of the house and linked the interior to the exterior.
This tutorial will re-decorate the house by removing certain object, place new objects,
and set-up the ownership on all objects in the house. We'll then discuss the use of NPC's
in Morrowind, and place the owner of the house.
Open up the CS and arrange it to suit your needs. Open up the mod and focus the
CS on the interior of your new house in Moonrest.
We are now going to modify the interior of the house. First off, we need to
know who owns the house, so we'll create a new NPC to be the owner.
We already have an NPC in the house, the one we copied with the
contents of the house. He's in the top left corner. Delete him by ensuring
he's the only highlighted object, then press the DELETE key. Now, look
in the Object Window and find the NPC Tab. Select it. What I would
do now, would be to look through the NPC's that I'm interested in and
select him into the house. This is the easiest way, for now, so click in
the the ID column header to sort the column alphabetically starting at
'a shady smuggler'.
Let's just talk about naming conventions a little. When creating a new
mod, we need to be able to find all our changes quite quickly, and the
best way to do that is to ensure the names we give to all the objects we
use start with the same combination of letters. So, for instance, we could use our own
initials, or the initials of the mod's title. My name is Dave Foster, so
we could name every new or modified object with the letters df_ e.g.
df_mynewnpc. If you scroll down the column, you will see that I've used the
latter, fkoa_ since this is more likely to be unique. The only thing
I would say, is to ensure you stick to the convention once you've started.
The first of my NPC's is named 'fkao_pontius_defracto' which I got wrong. That's
why I never ended up using it. Note the column COUNT.
This expresses the number of objects in the mod with this ID. As you can see,
I created this character but never used him. It's OK to do this - if you create
an object and don't use it, then you can leave it in the mod with no ill
effects - just don't do it too many times, otherwise the more objects in the
mod, the bigger the mod will be. Scroll down the list until you reach the
'fkoa_redhand_wander' entry. Here, you will see that this NPC has been used
four times. Note the asterisk after the number 4 - this indicates that this
entry is an addition to the mod - it's not part of the original game. All
fkoa_ entries are the same. Since this mod relies on Morrowind and Tribunal,
during loading, Morrowind will be loaded first, followed by Tribunal, followed
by the Five Keys. If the Five Keys has modified any of the object ID's from
Morrowind or Tribunal without modifying the ID, then the modified object - or
referece, as it is called - will overwrite the original object. This is how
mods work with the original game - the originals are still there, but they
are hidden by the mod's changes. If you need to know where each of the
references for 'fkoa_redhand_wander' is used, then right click on the
reference and select 'info' - a Use Report window pops up to show you where
each reference is used. As you see, the references total four. It is
possible to use this window to jump directly to the location of the reference
by double-clicking on the reference. Try it on the 45, 36 reference - the
render window focuses on the NPC in that location. This is a very useful
feature of the CS, and allows you to get to locations quickly and easily.
Dismiss the Use Report window.
Take a look through the other columns of the NPC window, and figure
out what each one does. These columns hold most of the common data
related to the NPC. To see all the data, you need to double-click on an
object to open the Object window. Do it on the 'fkoa_redhand_wander'
NPC. See the screen below.
This screen shows all the details of the selected NPC (or reference,
since there are four of this character). Changing the behaviour of any
of the references will change the other three, so be careful. The main info
on this screen is the ID, the Script, the Race and the Class. You can give the
NPC any name you choose to identify each reference uniquely. In this instance each
reference is called 'Red Hand Mawler', but it needn't be. You could give
each one a name such as Alex or Doug, etc. These are generic characters, so
I give them all the same name. We'll talk more about scripts at a later
date. The two drop-downs for Race and Class are self-explanatory. You have
the choice of Male or Female via the checkbox. This reference has a
level of 30 and it is a Mawler in the Red Hand faction - we'll talk about
factions at a later date. Some characters in the game must not be allowed to
die, otherwise various aspects of the game, the quests etc. would be
compromised. To ensure that vital characters never die, just tick the
Essential box. If you wish dead bodies to persist in the game, then mark
the box Corpses Persist. If you wish dead characters or creatures ( the dreaded
Cliff Racers, for instance) to respawn later then check the Respawn box.
Below this set of boxes is the Health and Attributes section. DISP refers
to the NPC's dispostion towards the character, and REP refers to the player's
reputation in this character's eyes. Auto Calculate Stats ensures the character's
attributes are correct for the character's level. If you wish to change them
after setting the level, then uncheck the box. Don't worry too much about the
Blood Texture box.
We then have the character's skill value readouts which can be
changed if you have a mind to. Most of the time I leave them as they
are. The bottom left of the screen has the three buttons for Dialog,
Animation and AI. We'll talk about those another time.
On the right side of the screen are the body parts, items and spells.
You can change the head and hair by selecting a different value in the
two edit boxes. Don't worry about the Animation File button. In order to
give your NPC clothing and weapons, you'll need to be able to see this window
and the object window at the same time. Drag objects from the Object
Window into the Items box to give the character something different. To
remove an item, click on it and press the DELETE button. The same applies
to the Spells window
Some of the existing characters are blocked from Modification, but I have
never used the feature, so I cannot say the reason. Don't save anything at the moment,
since we'll need to change the ID as well.
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Now that we know how the character creation screen works we have two choices.
We can either right-click in the Object window then select NEW to create a new
character, or, we can modify and save an existing character. I would always
choose the latter, since you can find a character that already has most
of the attributes that you require, and just modify the ones you wish to
change. Try it both ways and choose whatever is best for you.
We are going to create a new character from an existing character, then
make some mods in order to give it the intended behaviour. Go back to
the house you've created and take a look around. Decide who your character
is going to be, and what kind of furnishings that character might choose.
Is it going to be a shop or private dwelling. Is the character going to play
a bit-part in the game, or is he going to be the subject of a quest? You
decide. With all this in mind, create your character accordingly.
As you can see from the original contents of the cell, Soronsson
was a single bloke, with a trollbone shield and an iron helmet - sure signs
of him being a soldier with the Red Hand. If you choose the character to
be somewhat different, you may need to get rid of these by selecting and
deleting. If your character is going to be married, then you'll need an
extra bed or a double bed. Work out who this person is, and what they'll
need - it's up to you. For the moment, I will assume that this is just going
to be one of Moonrest's normal citizens, a female that likes nice things around
the place, and a lover of jewelry and finery.
So, get rid of the shield and helmet for starters. Let's also get rid of
the desk with the book and other stuff on it. Drag the bucket to the left and
leave it up against the wall. What we need is a wardrobe for this lady's clothes.
We are going to put it up against the wall, to the left of the fireplace,
where the tapestry currently resides. Delete the tapestry. A wardrobe can
contain other objects, so you'll find them in the Containers category of
the Object Window. The easist way to find one is to sort on the Name column,
then look for Closet, which is another name for it. There are quite a few of them
in the list. Finding one that suits the surroundings can be a bit hit and miss
since you cannot see them without dragging them into the render window. There
is a utility - an HTML file that someone has written that lists all the
objects in the CS with pictures. You could use this to check what each closet looks
like. For now, just pick the 'de_r_closet_01_fcloth04' which contains a selection
of female garments. Double-click on the item to see it's window. Drag the
closet out of the object window into the render window. This is tricky, since
invariably the object appears behind the house, not in it. You will need to
spin the house around and drag the closet into position.
This is a woman's house, so we might expect a bit more finesse when it
comes to laying the table. Since this lady appreciates nice things, how about
some fancy crockery for her and her boyfriend. Get rid of the candle and the
mug, then go to the Misc Item tab of the Object Window, order by name, then
find the plates. Take a look through them to find something appropriate. How
about the 'misc_com_plate_03' item? Drag a couple onto the table. Best way is
to centre the window above the table and drag the plate above it, then use the
F key to 'Fall' it onto the table. This is the simplest way of getting
objects to sit on other objects - let gravity do the falling. Continue setting
up the table with goblets, knives, forks, spoons etc. Layout the table to
look nice, then add a couple of napkins 'misc_de_cloth10'. Add a selection
of food from the Ingredient tab. That's the table done. See image below.
You could try adding some mats and cushions (furn_de_cushion_round and furn_de_rug from
the Static tab, some books from the Books tab, and various ornaments from
the Misc Item tab. Just play around with dragging and dropping these items
into the render window, then placing them correctly. What about changing the
lighting ( from the World|Interior Cell menu ), and replacing some of the
existing candles and lamps with something a little more up-market from the
Light tab. This is your house - or your character's house, I should say, so
create it the way your character would expect to see it.
Now we know something about this character, let's go back to the NPC
tab and create this female. She should be a Nord, since this is
the Northlands and the people of Moonrest here are predominantly Red Hand
and proud of it. This is not Nordheim where the toffs live, so she should
probably be a commoner, a commoner that just happens to like nice clothes
and other such stuff. She will be a low level character with no direct
alignment to the Red Hand. She should be around level 2 to 3. Now, scroll
down the list of current NPC's and find a suitable starting point. Click
once on the female column then once on the race column. Now scroll down
to the section of Nord females that start with fkoa_. What about
'fkoa_janna_tolonen'? She's a level 2 commoner - she'll do. Double-click
on her to bring up the NPC window.
The first thing we should do is change the ID; we do not want to
modify this character until we have done so, otherwise we could get into a bit of a pickle
if we save her by accident. Look at the list of Nord females and try to
get an idea of what the name should look like, then find a combination
of forename and surname that does not cause an exception ( duplicate id )
to be raised. Let's call her 'fkoa_krista_olsdottir'. Click on save, then
dismiss the pop-up 'Create a new Object?' by clicking on the YES button.
If everything is OK then the window should close and the new character
will be in the Object list. Double-click on your new character to open
the NPC window again - you may need to sort the list again on the ID column.
Change the name field to 'Krista Olsdottir'. Leave the stats alone for now,
and note that she is wearing a couple of expensive items and a couple of
common items. This could be expected. If you want to change some, or give her
some jewelry, then do so. At this stage you may want to experiment with some
of the head/hair combinations before moving on. In order to see the changes,
we are going to need to place a reference in the cell. So, drag Krista into
the render window, and place her next to the closet. Have her facing towards
the door. When you've finished, save the character again.
We'll now take a look at the AI (Artificial Intelligence) for this character.
Click on the AI button to bring up the form. You'll see that there are two
tabs - Packages and Services. The packages are the AI and the Services are
for shopkeepers, ship captains etc. The default tab is the Packages tab. Krista
has the Wander package, and the details appear in the right hand box. There's a
drop down for selecting the package e.g. wander, follow etc. Her wander distance
is set to 0, which means she'll stay where she is, although the list of Idle Chances
will ensure that she moves a bit with various head movements and turns etc. We
won't go into these at the moment. The Fight, Flee, Alarm and Hello boxes express
the chances of this character performing any of these actions so, a Fight value of
30 means she has a 30% chance of fighting if provoked. A 90 to 100% chance means
she'll probably attack you on sight. The Alarm value is the chance that this
character would shout out if the player broke the law. Setting all these values
to 30% is about the norm. Take a look at the Services tab. Everything is self-explanatory,
except for, maybe, the Travel Services which we will not be using here. Close the
AI screen, then close the NPC screen.
We've now created and modified the interior of our new house, and created
an owner for the property. There is one thing left to do, and that is to
setup the ownership of everything in the house. The ownership of items ensures
that if the player should attempt to steal anything, then the owner will
shout out, and attempt to call a guard if there is one nearby. This is a
little tricky to get right first time, so don't worry if it doesn't always
work. If it does not work then try again.
In order to make everything in the house belong to Krista, we need to
select everything first. So, move to a position outside the house so that
you can highlight everything that makes up the house. Select everything
so that it is all highlighted. We then need to zoom into the house and find
an object that has ownership. Static objects such as rugs, tapestries, walls
etc. do not have ownership. Misc Items, containers, ingredients etc. do. Zoom
into the chest on the table, then double-click on it. This brings up the container
screen, since the small chest is of type Container. Every other object in the
house is still selected, so by setting the ownership on the chest, we will also
be setting the ownership on everything else. This screen has object data above the
middle, and reference data below the middle. Remember, there is only one object
with any particular, unique ID - but there can be many references to this object.
You'll find the Ownership property below the middle, which means that Ownership
does not change the object, it only changes the reference. This is a very important
point to make note of. Anything that changes the physical object i.e. the properties
above the Reference Data, actually requires you to Save the object. When changing
the reference to the object, you should NOT save the object. This container
'chest_small_02_misc' has an object inside it called 'extravagant_ring_01'. This
chest may appear in the game 100 times. If you change anything in the object data,
you are changing every other 'chest_small_02_misc' in the game - and that's very BAD.
All you want to do is change this one, which is OK, because you're only changing
the reference data. If you need to change the Object data for any of the objects in
the game, you must copy the object and paste a new object with a different ID, as
we did with Krista.
Getting back to the ownership then - find the reference data below the middle that
refers to the ownership of all the selected objects. It's a drop-down box, that currently
has ownership set to 'fkoa_soronsson'. Change this to 'fkoa_krista_olsdottir'. Click on
the button Apply to Selection. A change notification box pops up notifying you that the
change has been applied to x objects. Dismiss this box, then dismiss the container form.
DO NOT CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON. I thought I should just drill that in, since
saving changes to the object can have disastrous results that will probably require you
to reload from a save. You can confirm that the changes have been made by checking the
Cell View window that contains the list of items in the house. As you can see, the
owner of these items is indeed 'fkoa_krista_olsdottir'. Save the mod.
In this tutorial, you have learnt how to modify the interior of your
new house, how to use the Object window to choose and place new items, the
NPC tab for creating a new character for your house, the settings for a character's AI,
the importance of ownership, the differences between objects and the references
to those objects, and how to setup the ownership on a lot of object references
in one easy go. Here's an updated list of the keyboard shortcuts that you have learnt.
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