Complete Beginners 1
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Welcome to the first part in a series of tutorials designed to give beginners all the information they need to start making their own mods. This first tutorial will focus on loading up the Construction Set (referred to as the CS), loading the Oblivion Master File, and controlling the various editing windows. If this means nothing to you then read on.
The Construction SetEdit
If you haven't already done so, download and install the construction set from here:
The BeginningEdit
Once you have installed the CS, open it up. After it has loaded you will see something like this:
PICTURE: CSMain.bmp TODO
At the moment we have a completely featureless world with no terrain, items, NPCs or buildings. To access the world of Oblivion, we need to tell the editor which file we want to edit. The CS uses two main types of file:
Elder Scrolls Master (esm) file - These files are used to contain all of the data for the game. Unless you are making an entire new world or a very large mod you will probably never make one of these.
Elder Scrolls Plugin file (esp) - These are the files you will be working with, each mod has its own plugin file which must be loaded.
The Way Mods WorkEdit
In Oblivion, all of the information about objects in the game is held in the master file Oblivion.esm. When you create a mod you tell the editor which bits of the game you want edited and how you want them changed. These changes are stored in your plugin file.
Loading Oblivion.esmEdit
So, first thing we need to do is to load the main game file. To do this click on the File menu and select Data. You will see the following window:
TODO: Add pic of data files menu.
You will see in the list on the left the Oblivion.esm file. If you have any mods installed then you will also see them here. Double click the Oblivion.esm file so that a black cross appears in the box next to it and click OK. The CS will now load the file. This can take a while so now is the time to go and get a drink.
The game objects are now loaded into the editor.
The Object WindowEdit
The window on the left is the Object Window. You can use this to browse in game objects such as weapons, armour, NPCs and creatures as well as the separate pieces that are put together to create buildings and caves. You can expand the sections by clicking on the plus symbol next to them. Try expanding the Items section and then left clicking the Weapons section. This will display all weapons in the game along with their stats.
Note: I'm still working on this ;) --Iapetus 11:12, 2 May 2006 (EDT)