Done! One Skryim mod ... sort of.

Sovrath

So, as I've mentioned over the course of all time, I've been working on a Skyrim mod. And what a journey it's been.

I've learned a lot and have developed a greater appreciation for people who actually create video games professionally.

The "sort of" refers to my mod being for "oldrim" or original Skyrim. I'm trying to port it but things don't seem to "want to work."

However, if you still play with the original Skyrim and want something new, here you go.

I'll post here once I get it working on Special Edition.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547?tab=posts

Frequently asked questions for mmorpg.com that no one asked ...

Why are you telling us?

I've mentioned it enough times that I now sound like a broken record. So "for the record" it's done. For Oldrim.

I see your mod page has a lot to read, I hate reading, do I have to read it?

You really should as the actual mod will require you to read things and figure things out.

How do we start?

A courier should find you, Solitude is a good place. One player reported the courier NOT finding him but another had no problems. If it takes way too long then go to the inn "in" Ivarstead and you will find your contact gorging himself on a meal in one of the guest rooms. Talk to him, pack is in the corner of the room that has a key to the tomb. Tomb is at Arcwind point.

Did it really take you many years to finish? Aren't you embarrassed and ashamed?

It did take me years to finish (it's rather large) and while I'm disappointed that it took so long, it was fun in its own way and definitely a gaming achievement for me.

Is it perfect?

Nothing is perfect so if you find issues please let me know.

Will you answer questions and support the mod? Can I ask questions here?

Absolutely, I want to make it a painless and easy process for those who try it.

And thanks!

Slapshot1188

Congrats and best of luck!
Must be a great feeling to get this done.

Scorchien

Nice Sovrath , ill check it out for sure when i fire up Skyrim again .... Grats on all your hard work finding an end and a beginning

Sovrath

Thank you both. Yes, it's a great feeling but I really want to go to the house of everyone who tries it and stand over them and make sure everything's working and then say things like "oh, wait you might want to ... " and "oh that's really supposed to work like ... "

etc.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sovrath

blueturtle13 said:

I am free this weekend. I will load it up and give it a go. Good job. It is such hard work and you did it for the passion of the game. Thanks!

Thanks! Please reach out if you have any questions or um questions!

Slapshot1188

Now you can start your Kickstarter for your next project!  You have more than a Powerpoint.  I'd go for at least $1M.

Seriously though,  if you ever get it updated I'll absolutely give it a go.  I like the trailer!

Sovrath

Slapshot1188 said:

Now you can start your Kickstarter for your next project!  You have more than a Powerpoint.  I'd go for at least $1M.

Seriously though,  if you ever get it updated I'll absolutely give it a go.  I like the trailer!

Kickstarter it is.

Oh sure, I'll keep promising stuff and years will go by but I'll be living in a style that I will eventually grow accustomed to.

um working on the Special Edition version. Stupid construction kit.

Slapshot1188

Now of course you understand that every post you write from now on shall be read with that voice in my head.

AlBQuirky

Congrats!

I enjoyed the trailer and wondered if you did the music for it

I'll download it and try it out after I finish my current run. It'll be interesting to play vanilla again! (I'll have to get the city houses once again!) lol

Sovrath

AlBQuirky said:

Congrats!

I enjoyed the trailer and wondered if you did the music for it

I'll download it and try it out after I finish my current run. It'll be interesting to play vanilla again! (I'll have to get the city houses once again!) lol

Thanks!

No, music is a piano reduction of a Samuel Barber piece called "Dover Beach."

I "was" going to write something in a similar style but in truth, I've spent so much time on this and I desperately need to move on to another project that has suffered a bit because of it.

A bit of serendipity, I actually went to youtube to see if there was a reduction of the music for piano as the piece is originally for voice and string quartet.  I then found a woman's channel where she just posted the piano reduction a few days earlier. Huge coincidence.

And come to think of it, I need to put her in the thanks.

In any case, if you have questions or run into any road blocks please reach out. There are puzzles and some might require you to notice things that the normal Skyrim game doesn't force you to do.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sovrath

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

cheyane

Fantastic! You're one of those who is doing it instead of just talking about it.

AlBQuirky

Sovrath said:

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

That was an interesting read, Sovrath.

I now next to nothing about coding. I've taken classes, but zero practical experience. I did try the TES Construction Set back for Morrowind. It was a simple project just for me.

I needed storage space in Seyda Neen (Starter Town). So I created a barrel and box with a massive amount of storage space. I plopped them down near a house and had fun filling them with all my loot

No scripts needed, but I did brush the surface of the construction set. That was enough for me to know that anything more complex would drive me batty. Kudos to you!

Sovrath

cheyane said:

Fantastic! You're one of those who is doing it instead of just talking about it.

Thanks. I'm trying to live my life by showing rather than telling. It's not always easy but at some point I either have to show or step down off the stage!

Sovrath

AlBQuirky said:

Sovrath said:

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

That was an interesting read, Sovrath.

I now next to nothing about coding. I've taken classes, but zero practical experience. I did try the TES Construction Set back for Morrowind. It was a simple project just for me.

I needed storage space in Seyda Neen (Starter Town). So I created a barrel and box with a massive amount of storage space. I plopped them down near a house and had fun filling them with all my loot

No scripts needed, but I did brush the surface of the construction set. That was enough for me to know that anything more complex would drive me batty. Kudos to you!

Seriously, if you can plop down a barrel you can make a dungeon. No lie.

The creation kit looks intimidating but once you see the logic it's as easy as going to the left hand side, picking a category and scrolling for what you want.

Or do what I do and just type in "noble" with "all" selected and scroll to ALL the noble furniture so you can find what you need.

Now, it's buggy and that takes some patience. But it's literally like a lego set. 

laserit

Sovrath said:

AlBQuirky said:

Sovrath said:

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

That was an interesting read, Sovrath.

I now next to nothing about coding. I've taken classes, but zero practical experience. I did try the TES Construction Set back for Morrowind. It was a simple project just for me.

I needed storage space in Seyda Neen (Starter Town). So I created a barrel and box with a massive amount of storage space. I plopped them down near a house and had fun filling them with all my loot

No scripts needed, but I did brush the surface of the construction set. That was enough for me to know that anything more complex would drive me batty. Kudos to you!

Seriously, if you can plop down a barrel you can make a dungeon. No lie.

The creation kit looks intimidating but once you see the logic it's as easy as going to the left hand side, picking a category and scrolling for what you want.

Or do what I do and just type in "noble" with "all" selected and scroll to ALL the noble furniture so you can find what you need.

Now, it's buggy and that takes some patience. But it's literally like a lego set. 

Was the patience the most difficult task?

Such an awesome thing to work on something for so long and to see it to through to fruition. 

I'm going to install Skyrim again just so I can play your mod.

I hope you get paid in spades Sovorath. I think the type of currency your looking for is the smile you can put on someone's face

World needs more people like you.

Sovrath

laserit said:

Sovrath said:

AlBQuirky said:

Sovrath said:

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

That was an interesting read, Sovrath.

I now next to nothing about coding. I've taken classes, but zero practical experience. I did try the TES Construction Set back for Morrowind. It was a simple project just for me.

I needed storage space in Seyda Neen (Starter Town). So I created a barrel and box with a massive amount of storage space. I plopped them down near a house and had fun filling them with all my loot

No scripts needed, but I did brush the surface of the construction set. That was enough for me to know that anything more complex would drive me batty. Kudos to you!

Seriously, if you can plop down a barrel you can make a dungeon. No lie.

The creation kit looks intimidating but once you see the logic it's as easy as going to the left hand side, picking a category and scrolling for what you want.

Or do what I do and just type in "noble" with "all" selected and scroll to ALL the noble furniture so you can find what you need.

Now, it's buggy and that takes some patience. But it's literally like a lego set. 

Was the patience the most difficult task?

Such an awesome thing to work on something for so long and to see it to through to fruition. 

I'm going to install Skyrim again just so I can play your mod.

I hope you get paid in spades Sovorath. I think the type of currency your looking for is the smile you can put on someone's face

World needs more people like you.

I can't begin to tell you how long I'd work on a simple thing that just didn't work. After a while I adopted a different way of doing things. I'd work on a "thing" and if it took longer than I wanted/needed it to, I'd simplify it or change it so I could move on.

Or, at the end of me testing it I'd discover stuff that had worked just not working. So buggy. Even now, on the Nexus forums, two players reported my three gates not opening. So last night I added three controls that will appear when the gates "should" open. If the gates aren't opened the controls will allow the player to open it.

In my tests the gates open fine. However, if other players are experiencing an issue and I can't replicate it, I have to come up with either a complete change or something that will assist them.

I hope you do try it and please feel free to reach out with any questions or hints. Please go in being inquisitive and check everything. There are a lot of hidden areas that I suspect a lot of players are missing.

But as I say in the "blurb" those secret areas are for the people who find them. And there are a lot! Thanks for your kind words!

laserit

Sovrath said:

laserit said:

Sovrath said:

AlBQuirky said:

Sovrath said:

Deathkon1 said:

The fact that people like you make mods is why people who don't know how to mod or don't want to take the time to learn can enjoy this kind of thing, I love mods but am not willing to put the work into making one on behalf of people who still play or just started skyrim thank you 

Ps: Not kissing ass but anyone who codes anything even a mod deserves mad respect its so under appreciated 

So awesome you bring that up.

I can't code.

Not a lick. Not a bit. Not a wit.

There are small script fragments that I gleaned here and there, one was given to me by a member of the nexus community, and I keep them in a text file. Whenever I need one I copy it and paste it in the appropriate place and be done with it.

I think the most I do is change the alias name in the area of the script fragment.

I did have a coding "moment" when I needed something to "enable" and the script fragment had "disable" and I wonder if I just changed that bit if it would work. 

It did. Goes to show you how much I know.

I would love it if people who didn't code, who were intimidated by the construction set, were to see that I made a mod with dialogue and over 100 maps (of varying sizes) and realize that they can do it too.

There is a video that Bethesda put out for people who want to use the creation kit where the developer is typing these long ID names of items off the top of his head. I NEVER was able to do that.

When I first started I would drop in a floor piece that had all sorts of meshes on it ... jugs, several types of dais, several types of vines, candles, furniture, etc. I would use that as a sort of art pallet and just copy what I needed. After a while I would learn parts of the names. One Dais is  spelled incorrectly and is spelled "dias." I use that one a lot.

Then if I needed a piece and I couldn't remember the name I would go to one of my maps and copy it from there.

All this to say that if my mind, which doesn't hold this type of information, can do it then anyone can.

You can! Heck, I would say that once you familiarize yourself with the pieces, you could make a simple dungeon in a weekend. Or faster. No quests just a dungeon crawl, maybe some nots or a journal. Doesn't take any know how other than being familiar with some pieces.

Think of it like a lego set and you wouldn't be too far off.

Now, complex things do require scripting. But I would work around that when I could and just be clever. Thanks for the kind words!

That was an interesting read, Sovrath.

I now next to nothing about coding. I've taken classes, but zero practical experience. I did try the TES Construction Set back for Morrowind. It was a simple project just for me.

I needed storage space in Seyda Neen (Starter Town). So I created a barrel and box with a massive amount of storage space. I plopped them down near a house and had fun filling them with all my loot

No scripts needed, but I did brush the surface of the construction set. That was enough for me to know that anything more complex would drive me batty. Kudos to you!

Seriously, if you can plop down a barrel you can make a dungeon. No lie.

The creation kit looks intimidating but once you see the logic it's as easy as going to the left hand side, picking a category and scrolling for what you want.

Or do what I do and just type in "noble" with "all" selected and scroll to ALL the noble furniture so you can find what you need.

Now, it's buggy and that takes some patience. But it's literally like a lego set. 

Was the patience the most difficult task?

Such an awesome thing to work on something for so long and to see it to through to fruition. 

I'm going to install Skyrim again just so I can play your mod.

I hope you get paid in spades Sovorath. I think the type of currency your looking for is the smile you can put on someone's face

World needs more people like you.

I can't begin to tell you how long I'd work on a simple thing that just didn't work. After a while I adopted a different way of doing things. I'd work on a "thing" and if it took longer than I wanted/needed it to, I'd simplify it or change it so I could move on.

Or, at the end of me testing it I'd discover stuff that had worked just not working. So buggy. Even now, on the Nexus forums, two players reported my three gates not opening. So last night I added three controls that will appear when the gates "should" open. If the gates aren't opened the controls will allow the player to open it.

In my tests the gates open fine. However, if other players are experiencing an issue and I can't replicate it, I have to come up with either a complete change or something that will assist them.

I hope you do try it and please feel free to reach out with any questions or hints. Please go in being inquisitive and check everything. There are a lot of hidden areas that I suspect a lot of players are missing.

But as I say in the "blurb" those secret areas are for the people who find them. And there are a lot! Thanks for your kind words!

I guess when a new game releases and the developers are scrambling you can kind of relate to the things they go through

I go through a similar process in my trade. The really tough ones, you usually don’t see the logic until after you have stumbled on the answer

Those kind words are well earned I’m sure.

Sovrath

Torval said:

Congrats Sovrath!

Awesome, thank you.

There are a few things I've had to fix/change but *cough - cough* so far some of the comments are good ....

"I'm super impressed with what I've seen so far. I found your dedication after "gently rubbing" the skull  
I'm actually excited for tomorrow mornings game time. Will keep you posted if anything crops up, but so far...outf**kingstanding!

btw...that Sun and Moon book in the chamber with all the coffins almost reduced me to tears. "

and ...

"Absolutely brilliant mod,best I have ever played in 10 years !! "



Hope I can make the jump to special edition.

Sovrath

Torval said:

What are the SE hurdles making it difficult to port?

Well, there are several.

The first is that I'm having some issues with some extra assets. I've ported all the meshes/textures but for some reason, two don't appear and I get a "!" and one, a moving bridge, doesn't appear at all. I have three other moving items such as a platform and a block so I will need to see what is up with that.

The large issue is that the quests don't work. I figured out how to get at least one to fire off but I get no sound. I have an idea on how to fix as I'm porting the .esp and allowing it to read the archived stuff from a BSA but I am wondering if I need to just unpack the archive into the Skyrim data folder and THEN change the .esp.

So that is what I'm going to try this weekend.

The sound files (of which there are many and not dialogue, just sound effects and the like) have to be changed from wav files to whatever new Skyrim reads. I think it's xml or some such thing.

AlBQuirky

I did want to ask: When I downloaded your mod, I got a "must have Dawnguard installed" from Nexus. Were you able include Dawnguard "fixings", or do I need to make sure Dawnguard is checked, too

ConstantineMerus

Congratulations mate. Any plans for a PS version?

Sovrath

AlBQuirky said:

I did want to ask: When I downloaded your mod, I got a "must have Dawnguard installed" from Nexus. Were you able include Dawnguard "fixings", or do I need to make sure Dawnguard is checked, too

Well, if you have Dawnguard then it will work. If you don't have Dawnguard then I imagine the mod will either crash your game or you will get a LOT of things missing.

I guess the answer to your question is you need to have dawnguard checked.

Thanks for trying! If you have any questions feel free to reach out.