Tutorial: Adding Help Files to Skyrim's Main Menu

Object: Add Help files to Skyrim's main menu.

Difficulty: Very Easy

Time Needed: Besides the time needed to write the files, about two minutes.

What You Will Need:

• The Creation Kit. The Creation Kit is the modding tool for Skyrim, and can be downloaded from Steam.
• Some previous understanding of the Creation Kit (preferably).
• The text for the Help file that you want to add.

There are a number of ways to add guides and Help files to your mod. The most common way is to use a book or a Message Box menu system. With the addition of MCM (Mod Configuration Menu) to the SkyUI,  it is now also possible to add them to your mod's MCM. 

This tutorial focuses on adding Help files directly to Skyrim's normal main menu. When you press 'Esc' ingame, you can save, load, read your journal, review your achievements, etc. There are also Help messages for guiding the player in how to use the game. It is possible to add your own messages to this list. To do this, two things need to be done:

1) Create a new message by navigating to Miscellaneous > Messages in the Object Window, right-clicking in the right-hand panel, and clicking 'New'.

• Write or copy the text that you want to be read in the Help menu.
• Make sure that the Messagebox checkbox is checked.
• I suggest that you follow the naming scheme that the other Help Message have: "Help[Topic]Long".
• Ensure that there are no Menu Buttons or Conditions. Click 'Ok' to create the Message.

2) Navigate to "Miscellaneous > FormList" in the Object Window and find the "HelpManualPC" FormList. Double-click to edit it. Now go back to the Messages category, select your Help Message, and then drag it into the FormList.

3) Save your plugin. Start Skyrim.exe and select your plugin from the Data Files. Begin the game, load a save, and press 'Esc' to test your modification. Navigate to the 'Help' menu, and look for your message. The Help messages are categorized alphabetically by the Message's name.

There you go! Your Help files have now been added to Skyrim's Main Menu.

Skyrim Monk Let's Play #1 - Intro

I have uploaded a new video for the Way of the Monk mod to Youtube. This video describes how the mod works, and introduces my upcoming Let's Play series for it.

If you'd like to be notified when I post more videos, then feel free to subscribe to the channel.

Tutorial: Creating A Skill

Object: To create a new skill using Papyrus scritps

Difficulty: Very complicated and difficult

Time Needed: A great deal. If you are an unexperienced modder, it will take you even longer. For experienced modders, while actually writing the scripts might not take much time, designing the system, implementing it, and perfecting it until it plays well can still take a long time.

An extended version of this tutorial, along with a fully-functional example woodcutting skill mod are available on the Skyrim Nexus for free.

Things you will need:

• Creation Kit.
• A plan for how the skill will work mathematically
• Scripting and general Skyrim modding experience

Note: You cannot create a new skill that uses the vanilla interface without editing most of the base code of the game. This tutorial explains a workaround tactic for create a system of scripts that let you track the how much the player does a certain item so that you can add perks, quests, or other features that depend on the player reaching a certain level in that skill. This tutorial is not going to follow the normal format (a list of buttons that you need to click and actions that you need to do). Rather, it is going to explain the concept of the skill workaround, and how to design/implement it. The actual implementation and the specific equations will be left to you to develop. In this tutorial, we will be using a Woodcutting skill as an example.

Setting up the XP: You first need to plan out the math of your skill. How you gain XP, how much XP you need to level, whether each level requires more XP, what higher levels give you, etc. These decisions will decide how the skill actually works mathematically and are extremely subject to change. I can't tell you how many times I have tweaked and changed my Unarmed leveling system in Way of the Monk. Once you being testing the skill you will inevitably find ways in which it can be improved or tweaked. What sounds good  in theory may not play well in the real game.

The first thing that you need to determine is the XP system. Even though Skyrim tries to take away the numbers as much as possible so that the game feels more immersive, it does actually use XP. Every time you use one of the skills (by casting a spell, hitting an enemy with a weapon, creating a potion, etc.) your XP is raised by a certain amount. Once it hits a cap, the skill level is then increased and the amount of XP needed to reach the next level is raised. You can study the XP system in Skyrim on the UESP wiki. I would highly recomend that you study the vanilla skills to gain a grasp of how they work. In the Woodcutting skill that I will be using as an example I used the following Papyrus Code:

if WoodcuttingXP.GetValue() >= 100
    WoodcuttingLevel.SetValue()WoodcuttingLevel.GetValue() + 1)
    WoodcuttingXP.SetValue(WoodcuttingXP - 100)
endif

Each time you activate the Woodcutting block, your XP will be raised. In the above code, the IF statement determines that when your XP reaches 100, your skill level is raised by one and your XP is reset.

If you want to have the amount of XP required to level increased every time, then you can do one of two things. 1) Instead of increasing the XP by a set amount every time the Woodcutting Block is activated, you should use a variable that can be decreased every time you level. So, say the variable starts out at a value of 10 and you must use the Woodcutting block 10 times to reach level 2. You should add to the above code a line that decreases that variable from 10 to (for instance) 8. Next time, it will take 12.5 (rounded to 13) uses of the Woodcutting Block to raise your level to 3. You can continue that process as long as you want to make it harder to level each time. Keep in mind, though, that if you simply subtract from the variable each time then the variable will eventually hit 0 and the level will never increase. So I would advise you to either write an IF statement to make sure that it never hits 0, or make sure that it hits 0 at just the right time if you want to have a level cap.

2) The other possibility is to have the amount of XP required to level set as a variable and increase it each time you gain a level. So, say at level 1 you gain 10 XP each time you use the Woodcutting Block and must acquire 100 XP to reach level 2. You can write the code so that when you hit level 2, the amount required to level is raised to (for example) 130. That way, it will take 13 uses of the Woodcutting Block to reach Level 3.

So, which of those methods should you use? It's really up to you. The second method is much more natural and runs much smoother than the first. But the first one makes it easier to modify the speed at which you raise your level with perks/abilities, and can be set up so that it stops level progression after a while.

Rewards: A skill is useless without rewards. You can give the player as fancy of an XP system as you want, but if it doesn't change the gameplay for them, then there is no point in downloading your mod. The vanilla game uses a perk system and a scaling system to reward the player for using a skill. The manner of your rewards depends entirely upon the skill that you are creating. For a Woodcutting Skill, the player might expect to be able to get a perk that increases the amount of firewood that they get each time they use the Woodcutting Block. Another good reward might be the ability to create items with your wood (arrows, bows, Forsworn items, etc.). Decide what type of reward you would like to give to the player.

Perks are the standard method of rewarding the player for raising their level. They are also an incredibly versatile way of giving bonuses to the player. I won't discuss perks in detail, since that's another discussion for another time. I will add, though, that one of the conditions that you can add to perks and their effects is the GetGlobalValue condition. This condition is extremely useful when using a skill system based upon Global Variables. If (for example), you want to specify that a Perk Entry only works when your Woodcutting Level is over 10, you can choose the S GetGlobalValue(WoodcuttingLevel) >= 10 condition information. This condition can also be used on Magic Effects in Spells.

Perk points are a good way of giving the player a choice in how they level. There is a reason why the game developers of Skyrim gave the player the choice of choosing their perks, rather than making the perk rewards mandatory like in Oblivion. It adds replay value and makes the player feel more invested in their character. If you're going to give the player that option, you will most likely end up having to create more perks so that they have some to choose from. While that means more work, it also means a more enjoyable playing experience.

The other type of reward that I mentioned was scaling. Scaling is when your ability to use the skill is improved as your level is increased. In the case of weapons, it means that your damage is increases when your level in that type of weapon is raised. The best way to set this up is to use an equation or perk that includes the skill level divided by a certain amount (e.g. effectiveness = 1 + Level*.01). You can also increase the effectiveness by a finite amount each time you level.

Example, using the equation:

        WoodcuttingEffectiveness.SetValue(1 + (WoodcuttingLevel.GetValue()*0.01))

OR by increasing it by a finite amount:

      WoodcuttingEffectiveness.SetValueInt(WoodCuttingEffectiveness.GetVaueInt() + 1)

This can be done with perks or by code in the leveling script. In the case of the example Woodcutting skill, the player can gain perks that increase the amount of wood that you gain each time you chop at the Chopping Block.

Another standard way of rewarding the player for raising their level is with new abilities or spells. New powers can be hard to make if you are trying to create a new type of effect that suits your skill, but they are a great way of making the player feel like they have accomplished something.

The other standard way of rewarding the player is with items. If you are a 3d artist, know someone who is, or have the permission of a mod author to use their models, you can add new items to reward the player with. Otherwise, you can add new enchantments or allow the crafting of vanilla items that you previously could not craft. Now, to fit the rest of the game, you probably don't want to simply add the item to their inventory once they reach a certain skill level. That breaks immersion and seems totally unnatural or special. It is best to either have a quest or a leveled list to give the item to the player. You can either make a quest for them to find it that you can only start once your skill reaches a certain level, or you can create a leveled list that has a chance to give you the item determined by a global variable. You can learn more about using globals in leveled lists by reading the "Chance None" entry on the wiki page, or by studying the Golden Touch perk in the Creation Kit.

The Coding Process: Now that you have finished the planning process, you need to actually write the code.

First, you need to find an Event that will run the code. This can actually be more challenging than it sounds. In my Way of the Monk mod, the Unarmed leveling script actually used the OnEffectStart Event because it was implemented as a script on a Magic Effect. Why? Because it was the only way to make sure that the script ran when the player successfully hit the enemy. Finding the right event can be tricky, and will likely take some testing. The Event that you use is totally dependent upon the nature of your skill, and it will probably take a lot of testing and inventive designing to find the right one.

For the Woodcutting example skill, finding the event was a bit difficult. I tried creating a unique script that ran on the OnActivate Event, but that ended up only running it whenever the player pressed 'e', rather than each time that they chopped wood. It would also run whenever NPCs used the Chop Block. So, instead, I edited the woodchoppingscript (not the vanilla script for the process) and added in my calculations as a function that ran when the played chopped a piece of wood.

        if WoodCuttingLevel.GetValueInt() <= 3
                WoodcuttingXP.SetValueInt(WoodcuttingXP.GetValueInt() + 1)
                if WoodcuttingXP.GetValueInt() >= 10
                        WoodcuttingLevel.SetValueInt(WoodcuttingLevel.GetValueInt() + 1)               
                        WoodcuttingXP.SetValueInt(WoodcuttingXP.GetValueInt() - 10)        
                        Debug.Notification("Your Woodcutting level has been raised to " + WoodcuttingLevel.GetValueInt())
                        PerkPointsAvailable.SetValueInt(PerkPointsAvailable.GetValueInt() + 1)
                        PerkPointsEarned.SetValueInt(PerkPointsSpent.GetValueInt() + PerkPointsAvailable.GetValueInt())
                endif
        endif

 After this, I created some perks, created a power to let you choose your perks and check your stats, and some notifications to let the player know that they are leveling as they use the Chop Block.

After you have found the Event to use, and have implemented the code, you need to test your mod. Creating the code is the easy part. Refining it takes time. I would highly suggest finding a group of modders to beta-test your skill once you have finished it. A system that seems to work well in the code and in your own testing might not work as pleasantly when others are using it.

Testing: After you have finished your planning, your coding, and your implementation, you must test your mod. I would highly suggest gathering a group of beta testers. You can do this by uploading your mod as a BETA version online. Let players know that what they are downloading is still in beta-mode, and give them an invitation to report any bugs or areas which could be improved.


Example: If you want to see an example of this tutorial in action, then feel free to download the Woodcutting Skill mod. You can also download an extended tutorial for creating a skill in PDF format.

Player Guide: Specialization

Even though the Way of the Monk's primary purpose is to provide a new playstyle, I have incorporated several ways to specialize your character.

1. Classic Monk


There is, of course, the classic fantasy-genre monk that wields no weapons, wears no armor, and heals his fellow warriors. Either the Pillar of the Healer or the Pillar of Aptitude are for you. The Pillar of the Healer's power automatically heals nearby allies by 3 points per second. Used with a follower-enhancement mod such as UFO, this will be especially useful. The Pillar of Aptitude does not give you any special powers, but instead increases the speed at which your Monk skills level. This classic character-type would use both of my new skills, as well as take advantage of the new weapons. To raise your player level and to survive for the first few levels, I would also suggest taking the time to improve your Restoration and Aleration skills.

2. Strangle 'em!


Want to sneak through the shadows and surprise your enemies with a stranglehold? With the latest patch from Bethesda, a ton of new Unarmed killcams have been added, including a number of which are specific to stealthily killing someone from behind. Just adds another level to your awesomeness. Finding the Pillar of the Shadow Monk would be my first deed. Read "the Pillars" at the Pillars of the Way for a riddle to find its location. The Pillar gives you a Backstab-like effect that multiplies your sneak-attack damage by 6 with Monk weapons. For you Unarmored assassins, it also fortifies your Sneak by 10 when you are not wearing armor. If you are going to play the part of a blade-less shadow killer, you might want to consider playing a Khajiit to get their Unarmed Damage and Sneak bonuses.

3. Magical Monk


One of the uniquenesses of this mod is its Unarmored features. In the vanilla game you must rely on your spells or talent in avoiding attacks to survive blows from your opponents. But with Way of the Monk, you can use the Unarmored perks to raise your chances of survival, and the Unarmed perks to fight in close combat. The Pillar of the Elemental Monk would be the most beneficial for such a character, since it gives you a resistance to magic when unarmored and lets you deal elemental damage to enemies with your attacks. Use whatever magic skills you desire in combination with my own new skills.

4. Tough Pugilist


Perhaps you just want to be a metal-encased warrior that beats his enemies into submission with his fists rather than a warhammer? Go for it! There is no specific pillar for a heavy-armor or light-armor monk, but I might suggest using the Pillar of the Wielder that multiplies the speed of your Monk attacks by 3 once a day. Use either of the vanilla armor skills that you want. I would suggest getting the Fists of Steel perk if you are a heavily armored Dovahkin.

Way of the Monk Lore: The Pillars

In an effort to fit my mod into the game lore, I have written three books that will explain the history and organization of the Cult of the Way, a group of people that specialize in unarmed combat. This book explains the history, uses, and locations of the Pillars. The Pillars are like the Standing Stones and let you gain unique powers to aid you in combat. This book can also be used as a player guide in finding the Pillars. The locations are hidden in riddles. They are not too hard to figure out, and give you a hint as to their location.

The Pillars

A Pilgrims guide to the holy Pillars of our Way

By Gurnjad Shormirisson

Wanderer of the Way

Praise be to our Master, and to the Teachings of the Way.

Hail, Pilgrim! It is to your honor that you seek to learn of the Pillars. They are the guides along the Way, and their sites are holy to our Cult.

Let us speak first of those called the Pillars of the Way:

They are called thus because of their importance. They were the first established by our Master, and they guide us in all that we do.

By seeking the counsel of the Pillar of the Way, you begin your journey.

By seeking the counsel of the Pillar of the Progress, you may learn of your progression upon the Way. By consulting it you can understand your distance, and reflect upon all the choices you have made

By seeking the counsel of the Pillar of the Choice, you may choose how you will progress upon the Way. The powers that we gain upon our Path must be determined and decided upon by us and us alone.

By seeking the counsel of the Pillar of Rewalking, we may choose to Rewalk the Way. We are relieved of our previous choices, and may make our decisions anew. Be wise, though, because Talos gives us only one chance to Rewalk our Path.

Let us now turn our attention to the holy sites of the Pillars of Power. These Pillars are unique places of importance, where great judgement of justice was once made. The significance and power of these sites influenced the Master and the Cult to erect Pillars in honor of them. These Pillars bestow upon the Pilgrims and Wanderers a unique power to aid them in their pursuit of justice. 

Pillar of the Shadows

The Pillar of Shadows is the site of a great battle between a Wanderer and a Bandit camp that took place after nightfall. The Wanderer Hod's heart was weighed upon in compassion for the locals who had suffered under the tyranny of the bandit chief. The Orc chief forced a tax upon the village that he had taken by force. He controlled the movements of everyone in the area, keeping them from alerting nearby villages. Their village was small, as well, and could not resist his warband. The blood of many of their sons already soaked the ground from the initial battle. Hod, however, encountered one of their men as he ran from the clutches of three bandits. Hod assaulted the criminals and dashed their brains upon the rocks. Filled with gratitude, the young man told the whole tale to Hod with his dying breath. Hod traveled to the surrounding villages and raised a band of his own to match the chief's force. At nightfall he and his men crept through the shadows and attacked the invaders. All of villagers  were brutally slain by the heroes. The Orc chief himself was slain in his bed as he forced himself upon a local maiden. Justice was served.

Find ye the stone of Shadows

There you will find the Pillar of night

Pillar of the Elements

Avoid the Apostates! For once there was another cult; a cult of Apostates. They were vile and conniving in their deeds, and they turned every thought towards personal gain. Because of their evil, they tempered their powers and became masters of both magic and the Moth combat form. Eventually their masters learned to even combine the styles to form a new mode of fighting. But despite their power, their greed destroyed the new cult. When the temple heard of their apostasy, Master Shormir led a force of Wanderers and Elders to their tower and destroyed every one of their hideous followers. In memory of their downfall, and to warn future generations from following the Apostate Path, the Master established a Pillar that bestows the cult's elemental skill upon Wanderers and followers of the True Way. Justice was served.

Pillar of Dimensions

Vanquish the Dark Brotherhood! As with all men of valor, our Master has encountered assassins from that vile association. Once, upon traveling to Dragon Bridge from Riverwood, he stayed the night in a camp on the shore of the shorter branch of the River Karth. He awoke in the night with blade at his throat. But the wretched assassin was not prepared for our Master's skill. Instead of Shormir's blood upon the ground, he was surprised to find his own when our master stole the blade from his hand. But the evildoer was crafty. Through some arcane sorcery he vanished from the tent. Our Master ran into the night and discovered the man upon a rock, laughing at his own power. "You can not catch a man who is not there," he mocked. But justice is not to be derided. Our master struck the evil man down and learned his power. Now he grants the ability to all who follow him. But beware, for such power is not to be abused. The power is not reliable, and could take you to your grave within the ground. Justice was vindicated.

Pillar of Aptitude

The Pillar of Aptitude was the first Pillar to be established by our Master, and is visited by Pilgrims  more than any other. When our Master first built the Pillars of the Way, he also built the Pillar of Aptitude to guide them upon their way and to speed their progress upon the Path. Justice can be learned.

To reach the Pillar of Aptitude, you need only to find the Guardian Stones.

Pillar of the Healer

The Pillar of the Healer is the most recently established Pillar. During the beginning of the conflict between the Empire and the Stormcloaks, a caravan of Pilgrims was caught between two opposing forces. In desperation, the Wanderer in charge of the caravan called upon his knowledge of the arcane to protect his men and heal them while the battle raged around him. Though arrows flew through the air, and lightening bolts seared ground, not one of the Pilgrims fell dead upon the ground. Finally, as the battle drew to a close, the Wanderer collapsed in fatigue. The noble man sacrificed his life's force to protect the Pilgrims, and in his great honor to the Master build this Pillar. Justice was protected.

Venture ye to the valley of the Sleeping Tree

Look ye then to the rise of the sun,

And to lights of the frozen lands.

Follow the path of their merging,

And the Healer's Pillar will be discovered.

Pillar of the Whirlwind

Honor our Master! For there is no equal of his in the art of the Way form. When he strikes an enemy, the vile wretch is vanquished. When he casts an Apostate down, they are crushed beneath his blows. No rival has he in Cultist combat. Whether with the bare fist, or with the Implements designed by his skill, all who come before his might are destroyed. Fear him in battle, and respect him in debate. For not a Dragonborn could defeat him in war. In mercy and in honor did he establish the Whirlwind Pillar. For he wisely saw that his power must be shared if his followers were to bring the light of justice into this dark world. To meet that end did he build this Pillar. Once a day, Pilgrims of this Pillar are granted his skill and power to pummel their enemies beneath many blows. Justice enlightens the world.

Behold the tower of the Dwemer!

Like a sentinel it reaches to the sky from the Reach,

And now it has another ward to guard

The Pillar which our Master bestowed.

Pillar of the Seer

Not long after the formation of the Cult of the Way, an elderly man came from Cyrodil to visit our Master at the new Temple. He was a Cultist of the Ancestor Moths, our father Cult. Though our Master had once been banished from their brethren, they saw that he had now become a great man, despite their initial dispute. Thus, he offered our Master a chance to return to the Ancestor Moths, and forsake the Way. Gently, and wisely, our Master declined. With grace, the elder accepted his decision, and left our Master with a gift. The gift was the knowledge of Seeing. For centuries the Ancestor Moth cultists have read the Elder Scrolls to decipher their meaning. But to do so leaves them blind and nearly mad. To aid in the service of Justice, the elder granted our Master and his followers the ability of prescience vision. Though the user is partially blinded for a short while, they are allowed to see the presence of all creatures in the region, whether dead or alive. Justice was honored.

The Pillar of Shadows was not established nearby,

But seek ye out the city of Wind,

Follow the waters west to the frozen lake,

and there will you gain the power of the Seer.

And Bethesda's big announcement is... Kinect?

Bethesda's developers and blog have recently been hinting at big news to be revealed in April. Well, that announcement seems to have been made today. But it is probably not what most of us were thinking it would be...

Having discussed the Tweets and blog posts of Bethesda's with other Elder Scrolls fans, I know what most of us were expecting. A DLC announcement, new Game Jam content, Elder Scrolls Online, something of that sort. But Kinect? Many of us already knew that Kinect support was available or about to be because of a video on Youtube that showed Bethesda developers using Kinect to play Skyrim. But that this would be the great big April reveal, most of us did not consider.

Personally, I'm unsure about this new Kinect option. Would it really be any better than normal gameplay, or would it cause more annoyance than enjoyment? I've never used a Kinect, so I'm not sure. The Kinect could greatly improve Skyrim's gameplay, especially since it would eradicate a lot of hotkey problems. If you're a Kinect owner or player, do you think that Skyrim would play well on the it? 

What do you think?

What do you think about this announcement? Was it as exciting as you thought it would be? Would you rather that they announced a new DLC or similar content? Will you play Skyrim on the Kinect? Do you think that this was a wise use of Bethesda's time and funding?

Hint: Creating textures fitting in Skyrim

You have seen mods that either retexture items or add new ones in the game. And maybe you've noticed how some textures stand out like they come from outer space or whatever funky world that is NOT Tamriel. If you've never notice this then I suggest you to either look carefully the exemple or avoid doing any texturing job.

Textures are extremely important. You can screw the modeling, you can screw the level building, but do not screw the texturing! Textures are what you see all the time, if you screw them you screw the game. They are not the only thing that can screw the game of course, but we're talking about textures.

Skyrim was created with a graphic chart including a certain range of colors only to fit the rugged, cold, snowy place. It's not for nothing that we never see bright red big flowers. Even the crimson nirnroots aren't bright red:

So, which picture should be your reference for texturing a crimson nirnroot?

Skyrim uses mostly desaturated colors, almost grey for most of them. Now it's not always easy to figure if your desaturated colors will fit in the game. However note that you shouldn't just take screenshot of the game and use the colors of the screenshots as they are altered by the game engine's post process.

So how to do? Well, simple trick:

1. Find items in the games that feature the colors you want to use
2. Get their textures
3. Pick the colors directly

If you can't find items with such colors, then maybe you shouldn't use them in the first place and go for other colors. If you want to extract textures from the game you will need a specific tool (see here for info and links).

Now if you want to expand a type of items already existing in the game, such as weapons and armors, to create maybe new variations within an existing set, or a new kind of weapon like staves in exemple. I cannot smith a staff in Vanilla Skyrim, it would be cool to smith some glass, elven or ebony staff!

...Okay... But before going wild, OBSERVE the existing weapons!

1. Look their designs, see what are the smilarities between a dagger and a bow, between a sword and a mace, etc.
2. Look if they have specific patterns in their textures, specific shapes in their modeling.
3. When you're able to tell what are the graphic codes of a weapon set, you can start designing.
4. Then submit your drawing on a forum to get feedback and advice.
5. Eventually fix it before starting modeling and texturing.

It is very important to not neglect feedback. Unless you're doing a mod just for yourself you should get sure that your audience will like what you propose. Plus if people are aware of what you do you have more chances to get the audience you deserve!

Finally, here's a graphic review I made. I guess a concrete exemple speaks better.

You see the difference? Before and after?

(If not, maybe you shouldn't do any texturing for the moment)

You may also read this great post from Martigen on Bethsoft, gathering advice from Martigen and many other texturers who contributed to the thread. The main focus is texture compression and I found this post extremely interesting, both technical and professional.