Saturday, January 26, 2013

Modders Wanted for Oblivionauts!


In order to create Oblivionauts, our team needs help from you and the Skyrim modding community. If you want to join our team, or know of someone you think would be of help to us, then please read below for more information.
Positions:
  • Level-Designers: Current members of the Oblivionauts team are capable of level-creation but do not have the experience that is needed for this project. To create the Realms, we are in need of level-designers who can create Interiors or Worldspaces. Experience in the creation of either one will help us, but a Worldspace designer will be needed for the Realms. Level-designers will work with the artists and story-designers to create the maps, and integrate their details. Dearthwit Spire and the Citadel's (read the Release Plan section of the mod's description) maps, characters, and stories have already been largely designed, but their locations have not been created.
  • Artists: Concept artists are of great value to a project like this. They allow writers and story designers to put their ideas into a visual format, and help level-designers implement them into the game.
  • Modelers: Like artists, modelers are of great value. New meshes and textures add fresh content to the world that makes it feel unique to the player.
In the future, we may also have positions available for voice-actors, quest-designers, and scripters. We are not quite at the stage where we are ready to recruit those types of moddders yet. When we are, then we will post a news update.

 Apply:
When applying, please provide us with examples of previous work (mods, art, team projects, etc.), your contact information, and some basic information about yourself and your skills.  Level-designers need to have experience with the Creation Kit and example mods to show us.
To apply, please post in our ModDB forums.
If you do not feel like you are qualified or do not have the time to help us directly, then please feel free to suggest modders for us to ask to join our team. If we know of a great modder that we would like to have on our team, then we will invite them. We know that modders have their own projects and ambitions, though, so we will do our best to not pester good modders or interfere with their own plans. 
If we like your work and if you seem like a nice person, then we will send you an invitation to become a member of our wiki. This will allow you to see the hidden development section of our wiki, and to post in the development forum. Because of this, you must make sure to provide us with your e-mail address.
Feel free to apply, ask for more information, or suggest modders. We look forward to working with you and with the community to create Oblivionauts. :-)

New ModDB page for Oblivionauts!

A new ModDB page has been created for Oblivionauts! On it are new details and art for our upcoming Skyrim modding Project. Please feel free to check it out, read about it, visit our links, see our concepts, and let us know what you think!

ModDB page


Wiki:
In addition, we have a wiki that we are using to develop the mod and store information. When the mod is released, it will also act as the main website for Oblivionauts. If you want to learn more about the mod's details, you can visit it at the link below. The hidden Development section contains the majority of our details for now. When pages are finalized, then they will be moved out of the hidden section. Please keep in mind as you view the wiki, that it is everything on there is subject to change, and not everything is visible to non-developers.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Skyrim DLC Coming to PC and PS3 in February!

Bethesda has released a press release on the Bethblog announcing the release of all existing Skyrim DLC in February for PC and PS3.


  • PC: Dragonborn will be released for PC on Tuesday, February 5th.
  • PS3: Dragonborn, Hearthfire, and Dawnguard will be released for PS3 in February. Dragonborn will come first, followed by Hearthfire, then Dawnguard. The 1.8 update will also be released prior to Dragonborn. Specific release dates for PS3 have not been specified, and are still being worked out with Sony. However, they will all be released in February. In order to compensate PS3 players for all of their troubles and their long wait, DLC will be 50% off during their launch week on PSN.
Personally, I am excited to get these DLC on PC to be able to use their assets in my modding projects. If you are a modder, what mods are you looking forward to making with Dragonborn?

To read the official press release, visit the Bethblog's article.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

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.