ATTN: STEP Modders (Rqst For Help)

[Shadriss]

First, to set everyone's mind at ease, it's not a request for mod support - it's a request for modER support.

 

Myself and a friend have made the tentative decision to steep into the modding realm. As I've mentioned before in other posts, I have some small history with modding other games and thier assets, and this friend assisted with that to a degree, so I have SOME idea of what I'm getting into. Unfortunately, I had something then that I do not, so far, have here. SPecifically, a set of tutorials for the CK that read as if they were in actual English.

 

To this point, my searches have really only turned up the manual for the CK itself, which is not really helpful to me. What I would like is something along the lines of (and here, I'll date myself as some of you will never have heard of it) the old Rich Deisel GTKRadiant tutorials for the Quake 3 Engine. THe key here, to me, is that they be clear, consice, and general enough in nature to allow me to figure out how to APPLY the ideas, instead of just "Put X here, put Y here, and you have duplicated my work. Good Job!"

 

If I get my feet under me for this, I have a rather ambitious idea for a mod, but I'll save that for later. I tend to try things way beyond my actual ability, but I seem to grow into them and they turn out really well... or have in the past. Hopefully, this will as well.

 

So, if any of you are familier with a good set of tuts or are willing to assist with CK Familierization yourselfs at some level, your time or directions would be appriciated here.

 

Moderators: Wasn't sure where to stick this, and it's the only Skyrim community I even talk in, so please feel free to move this as needed to a more appropriate area. THanks for your consideration in advance.

 

[Aiyen]

There are loads of youtube videos about the various topics of the CK. What I do is just start modding and then when I run into something specific I cannot figure out how to do I try to do a search for a video or related video. 

 

The CK is rather archaic in its build up, and most things are rather well hidden in sub categories. The best thing to do is simply just to start playing around and building up something and take it from there. 

 

My normal process is also to make sure to divide my project up into mini projects. So I finish one task before I start messing too much with the next, mainly to avoid getting too confused and frustrated with the rather horrible UI and control scheme the CK use.

For my blackreach stuff I started out with just general layout in the broad sense.. ie no small objects, just hallways and general layout. Then I moved on to cluttering up every single area from one end till the other. And currently I am hoping to get the time to move on to setting up some NPC´s, as well as create the separate interior cells. In short.. just keep the focus on one thing at a time and learn how to do that really well and fast. 

[Shadriss]

I absolutely detest video tutorials. I applaud the general efforts of those who do them, don't get me wrong, but there are several consistent issues that arise with them:

 

A) Badly organised. They tend to be long on the person rambling and short on actual usable content. They don't plan out exactly what they intend to do and say, so it ends up being a ramble-fest. This is made worse by...

 

B) Somehow, every person who does one seems to have a thick accent. Granted, this varied by where you live and what you are used to, but as I grew up pretty much all across the USA (USAF Brat), and don't have much of one to speak of, it's very difficult to listen to a thick eastern european accent for twenty to thirty minutes of rambling.

 

C) Even if A is avoided, typically it is one, possibly two, videos in a series that are connected in process only because of the person who is doing it - IE, there is no long term plan to teach the program beyond specific applications of a given tool as opposed to the program.

 

Manuals on the other hand, tend to be written more for people who already know what they are looking for, so those don't really work well either. What I was hoping for was a comprehensive series that starts at square one (I think I can figure out how to install... and did) and works through the process. Most that are written basically just have you mimic thier actions without any explanation of why you do a thing or when it may be better to do it an alternate way.

 

I'm pretty much certain that you're correct in how it's going to happen, though Aiyen. Problem is, even the small portions of what I plan are huge. Before I can even begin to build it, I have to figure out where it's gonna be (Either the tundra expanse west of Whiterun or the hot springs area of Eastmarch), and that means going trhough the editor to figure out how to see those specific areas, which so far have eluded me.

 

ENough whining from me for the moment - I have an interface to figure out.

[Aiyen]

Yeah I agree that there are a lot of, at times irrelevant info in most of the videos. I normally just try to quick skip through them and find what I need and only watch that. 

I have not found much in the way of decent written stuff, since these days everybody makes a video tutorial, and leave the written documentation more as a tech lookup for people who already know the basics.

 

 

However for starters I would recommend not to mess with exterior game locations. Do an interior cell and then link that cell to somewhere and work from there. Many benefits in doing that. But mainly that interiors are simpler, and when you start with a clean area you do not need to consider all the various effects and markers that fill up the exterior spaces. 

Also it will be much simpler to learn how to control the camera and place objects using the grid etc. (And the power of the hide object feature!)

After that perhaps place a simple NPC and figure out how to do nav meshes so NPC´s actually can do something in your content. 

 

As for your specific issue with location.... if you know the coc code for the area or one nearby it, just find that location in the worldspace list and open that. You can then move around in the world until you find where you want to place stuff, and then you will also get the actual cell in question. 

 

If you got more specific questions just ask away... and I am sure others will also chip in with some experience. 

[DoubleYou]

I think the best you'll find is here: https://ck.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Tutorials

[Shadriss]

That's what I'm working from atm, DY. So far (not far into it), it's relatively clear, but even these suffer from a case of "Do this" without telling me what I'm looking at. As an example, early on for camera controls, it tells you to load up Anises' Cabin as an example. It does tell me to do so from the Cell View. It does not (so far) tell me what I'm looking at IN that window, so I can start making sense of the data displayed. I imagine I'll pick that up a bit more as I go... maybe I'm just being overly wishful. The RDTuts I mentioned earlier for the Quake 3 Engine were brilliant, simple, and taught good process at the same time it taught commands, views, and how-tos. I was spoiled I think. :)