I'm still here!

I've been a bit quiet the last week. I'm still a little ill, so I'm not making any review or gameplay videos for the moment.

In terms of my modding, I'm currently working on scripting alone at the moment, so I don't have a great deal to show for it at the moment. Papyrus scripting for Skyrim is a blessing and a curse: it is very similar to C++, which is the language I have used the longest and hence am the most familiar with. On the other hand, however, that level of complexity does mean it will take a bit of time to get my scripts into a working state.

Rest assured, I'm still here and I'm still working away!

In the mean time, you can check out my various social media likes here:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hibblejaybob
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hibblejaybob
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/hibblejaybob
Blogger: http://hibblejaybob.blogspot.co.uk/

Kjorik's Rest: a player home mod for Skyrim

So with the completion of the basic tutorials for the Bethesda Creation Kit, comes the proper start for my first mod Skyrim. It will be a Nordic-style player home called Kjorik's Rest, where I will hopefully be consolidating my favourite aspects from several other player homes, into one!

Yesterdays work made the the exterior and the entry hall for Kjorik's Rest. Here's some of the screenshots from the mod so far:

Kjorik's Rest view from the side, with the Western Watchtower visible behind it in the distance. To the right is some of the buildings that surrounds Whiterun.

The exterior of Kjorik's Rest, showing the gravel path leading up to the entrance.

The door into Kjorik's Rest. The grass visible through the floor is an artefact left over from terrain painting, and will be removed!

The entry hall of the Kjorik's Rests interior.

Looking through the grate at what will be a short hall of stories before a puzzle door that will act as the main entry (proper) into the home.

The claw for the puzzle door. In time, this pedestal will be activate-able so the puzzle door will lock. Then you can just leave the claw on the pedestal as shown, or take it with you as a key!

Gotta have Easter eggs somewhere..... This hidden pullbar opens up a secret passage to the dev area, where I will be testing scripts and setups.

The false wall pulls back to reveal the entry to the dev zone!

And finally, a veiw from inside the dev zone, currently empty! It's basically just a copy-paste of the entry hall, minus most of the doors!

Well, that's my progress so far. I'll hopefully get back to it during the midweek once my work is done!

Finished the tutorial!

So my very first baby steps into TES modding have finished with the (hasty) conclusion of my version of the Lokir's Tomb. Lighting and AI dynamics are still a bit fuckled, but I don't plan on using combat AI in my upcoming mods, and the lighting issues are due to the unfortunate and unforeseen location of the main corridor (Skyrim can only render 8 shadow-inducing lights at once, regardless of if those lights are obscured to the viewer by wall or not).

So here's the final round of pictures from my finished dungeon. Here's the tomb's exterior:

I didn't want to be too invading into my game, so I used a simple Nordic Guard hut as my entrance, slanting the door to make it fit into the entryway. The entrance is located just opposite Riverwood (the tutorial says that the coordinates that it gives - which I used - should take you opposite Whiterun, but that's not where I ended up!).

Given there was only 2 lights in my previous instalment of the mod, I beefed  out the lighting of the cave, corridor and rooms with torches and fire pots:

Finally, I added some eerie atmosphere to the final boss room and it's entryway:

So that's it! My first, very small, not particularly well-functioning dungeon. Am I going to release it? Hell no! It adds nothing to the game at all, however it has served it's purpose in introducing me to the creation kit.

Now it's time to move on to my first proper mod, a Nordic-style player home! I would say updates to come soon, but at the time of writing, the Creation Kit wont open, so that is pending fixing. Hopefully soon!

Bringing a dungeon to life...

... literally! Continuing my tutorials of the Bethesda Creation Kit, its time to make the dungeon come alive with baddies and effects. My first attempts at putting AI enemies into the dungeon have not gone well, with my Draugr gleefully standing on top of his coffin, before slowly stepping off at the moment the coffin dramatically bursts of. Then there's the other, patrolling AI, that seems content just drawing and sheathing his weapon as opposed to actually moving about.... At least the navmesh is working well enough that you can successfully stab them for their hubris!

With the inclusion of AI into the dungeon, I needed to add some more rooms. I basically copy pasted the first room, and extended the hallway to facilitate the rooms, also adding in a downwards staircase.

At the bottom, the hall narrows into the final boss room (I have subsequently added a gate).

Finally, there was the application of of lighting and light templates. I've not added many lights yet, but you can definitely see the altered feel of the dungeon. The two pictures below show the entrance to the barrow and a skylight in the main corridor.

So that's my content creation from the past few days in a nutshell. I have a few more tutorials to play about with in level design, before I move on to scripting tutorials. Then I'll be starting my own mods proper!!!

I'm a modder! (VERY beginner, though)

So yes, as per my post yesterday, I've now taken up modding - in lieu of my Hibblejayvlog series. The series might come back in the future if I get the time, but for now I have no plans.

I'm currently planning on working on 3 mods for Skyrim - the logical choice, since that's where I've been spending the majority of my free time lately! At the moment, I'm nowhere near starting any of them, I'm just working my way through the Creation Kit tutorials. So to start with, I've made an extremely small Nordic barrow. Here's what I've done so far:

 This is the cave, looking toward the barrow entrance.

 The main entrance to the barrow, showing off the fire.

 Inside the main corridor, looking back at the main entrance, showing off some rubble and furniture scenery

 The remainder of the main corridor

 The door into the main chamber.

 Some Nordic urns with randomised loot.

 I made an alchemy station in a nook of the main chamber. Showing off some neatly placed ingredient satchels and some levelled potions above that (the potions vary with player level).

 Experimenting with the Havok-settle function in the creation kit, I made a basket filled with leather.

 The altar inside the main chamber, showing object (coins) and levelled item (the bow at the top of the image) placement.

 The loot containers inside the main chamber. This was an exercise in altering the loot inside the containers, and playing around with locks (the strongbox is locked).

 

My bowl of potions. This was to allow a slightly destructive environment: the bowl is non-static so can fall off the altar, dropping the potions across the floor.

More content to follow, once I've made it, of course!

GTA IV - A Winter Emergency

"It's the first day of snow as an earlier than normal winter grips Liberty City.  With the snowfall catching the city off-guard, traffic accidents in the busy Algonquin district have stretched the emergency services to the limit. To try and help, an ambulance carrying a team of A&E doctors is dispatched to the Holland Hospital Centre to help alleviate the pressure." - LC News


Story over: All events in this video are, of course, completely fictional. This was also an attempt to show off my skin for the ambulance, in what was my first ever skin effort for GTA IV. For better pictures of the skin, see my previous post: http://hibblejaybob.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/gta-iv-my-first-ever-skin.html

It's good to get back to making videos! :)