Tutorial: Leveled Lists, Part 1 - Adding Items

Object: To add objects to a leveled list

Difficulty: Easy

Time Needed: Less than 5 minutes

Things you will need:

• Creation Kit. The Creation Kit is the modding tool for Skyrim and can be downloaded for free on Steam.

Note: This is the first part of this tutorial and teaches you what you need to know to add an item to a leveled list. The second part will be more advanced and deal with the types of leveled lists, globals, using leveled lists with containers and NPC's, and other advanced functions.

First off, let me define the function of a leveled list. A leveled list is a list of items that randomly determines which item will be placed into the world, based upon the level of the player. For instance, in the LItemWeaponDaggerBest, you will find a list of items. There are six normal items and one other leveled list. There are also two columns titled "Level" and "Count". The number in the "Level" column determines what minimum level the player must be to get that item, and the number in the "Count" column determines how many of that item the player receives.

For a detailed description of each part of the LeveledItem window, read this wiki page.

In this tutorial, the premise will be that you are creating a new leveled list for all daggers, along with the random chance of finding an enchanted dwarven dagger.

1. Open the Creation Kit and navigate in the Object Window to the Items > LeveledItem category.

2. Create a new Leveled Item.

3. Navigate to the Items > Weapons category and drag the basic, unenchanted dagger of each type into the Leveled Item box.

4. These items have now been added to the list. Now, however, we are also going to add another leveled item to the list.
5. Find the LItemEnchDwarvenDagger and drag it to your new item.

6. The next part is to set the level requirement for each item. When you do this, you need to make sure that the levels are balanced so that the player does not receive overpowered weapons. If the level requirement of the daedric dagger was set to 1, for instance, then the player could find a daedric dagger at the beginning of the game! The best way to find out what level requirement you should give each item is to look at the default leveled items and see how they do it. For this item, we will copy the level requirements for the LItemWeaponDaggerBest leveled list. I will also set the required level for the enchanted dwarven dagger leveled item to 16 so that the player will receive it sometime between when they start finding dwarven daggers, and sometime when they start finding elven daggers.

7. Now you need to decide whether you want to modify the "Count" (the amount of the item given to the player), and if you want to add a "Chance None". Generally only arrows and other bundled items are assigned a Count higher than one. The "Chance None" determines if and how much of a chance there is that the player will not find anything at all. A 50 "Chance None" value will add a 50% that no item will be found, a 20 will add a 20% chance, and so on. Loot leveled items are the most likely to have a chance that no item will be found. I will give this leveled item a 15% chance that the player will not find anything.
8. To test your leveled item, you can use the "Preview Calculated Result" button and the "Preview Level".
9. Your items have been added to the leveled list. Enjoy the outcome. :-)

Part Two:


Part Two (coming soon) will teach you the more advanced functions of leveled lists and their various uses. It will not be written in the step-by-step manner that I have used for previous tutorials, but will be an extended explanation. Check back regularly for sequel.