WIP Skyrim Mod - Build Your Own Home (BYOH) The Rift
I've been working on a mod for Skyrim for a while now which adds the option for a new property to be purchase in the autumnal forest of The Rift where players will be able to build a house, similarly to how players can build houses with the Hearthfires DLC installed. This house is made using almost entirely assets already present in the game to improve compatibility with other mods, but it does not match the design of the houses added by Hearthfires. Alongside adding a property to a previously unused location, the experience of building the house will also be different for players.
This mod has been a long time in development already as this is the largest modding project I have ever undertaken and it has required me to learn many new things about Skyrim modding such as how the Creation Kit handles nev meshes and how to write Papyrus scripts, just for a couple of examples. Development has been on and off at times as other things demand my attention, such as when Oblivion Remastered suddenly dropped and demanded all of my free time for a few months between playing the game and learning about Unreal Engine modding. Nonetheless, I am slowly chipping away at this project as I am passionate about it and wish to see it completed. It was something I had been thinking about for a long time. I really wanted a more streamlined BYOH experience and a property in the beautiful Rift woods area, so it's always on my mind even when I'm not actively working on it.
Currently, I have the exterior level design completed and have begun working on the interior of the house. Below are some images both in-game and in-engine showing the layout of the property.
While I have done my best to reuse assets in as many places as possible, it is not possible to achieve the results I am looking for without any custom assets whatsoever. Nonetheless, custom models are designed to match the style of original assets by editing existing meshes and using the same textures. This will allow for minimal clashing as the custom meshes closely match the originals and any custom textures that mod users install will be applied automatically. Below is an example of a custom model made from editing the fences around the Thalmor embassy. The elevated walkway has been removed and it has been sectioned so that the exterior fence surrounding the property could be adjusted as necessary. The wall extends below the origin point so that there will never be a gap underneath, even as the terrain changes elevation. Other custom models are also used to allow for a more dynamic interior floor plan.
Skyrim uses a system of nav meshes and nav mesh cutting to determine where NPCs can path to. This system allows for dynamic level designs, a feature which is vitally important to buildable properties like this one. Below is a screenshot from the Creation Kit showing the new nav mesh for the altered terrain and a video demonstrating a follower properly pathing around constructed objects. In the video, the NPC follower is also demonstrated to avoid entering spaces which will be inaccessible in the finished project.
The construction system in this mod will be familiar to players who have built any of the properties added by Hearthfires, but it is actually a custom system. It is adapted from a script created by Darkfox127 which was shared in a video on his YouTube channel. In simple terms, when an item is added to the player's inventory a script which is attached will run. The script is setup to enable and disable specific objects in the world. The item is marked as unplayable and has 0 weight, so it would not appear in the player's inventory. Furthermore, the script removes the item after crafting is completed so that the item will also not appear when using the "showinventory" console command on the player actor. For the gameplay side of this system, players will approach a crafting bench which shows specific crafting recipes related to different parts of the property. A system of conditions based on the enabled state of X Markers controls which items appear as options. Any options which occupy the same space will be blocked from appearing when another option in that shared space is enabled. Options which require another to be crafted first will only appear if all required options' X Markers are enabled and none are blocking it. An activator under the crafting bench can be used to remove the bench when all desired crafting is completed. To avoid removing the bench on accident, a prompt will appear with a warning and confirmation from the player will be required.
This system is used both in the exterior and the interior. Each room will have its own crafting bench which will only show the options for that room. While the houses in Hearthfires have players build furniture one piece at a time, this project takes a different design philosophy. Each room will instead have players choose from a furniture layout with all furniture being crafted at once. After a room layout is built there may be additional options for players to choose from in order to further customize each room. For example, lighting styles, decorations, and additional furniture. In the screenshots below you can see an example of one room layout as well as the other layouts and markers layered over top of it in the editor. This layout shows an alchemy nook with cupboards and a shelf for potions or ingredients in the manor entryway. (The book is from a modder's resource created by stoverjm.) Overlayed are options for other room layouts including a shrine to one of the Nine Divines, some planters, an enchanting nook, a sitting area, and some weapon and armour displays. Notably, the countertop and cupboards are shared between the alchemy and enchanting nooks. There is a wall shelf which is not part of any specific room layout, but which will be buildable after any compatible layout has been built.
This mod features a custom system displaying items that are not books, weapons, or armour. A system like this does already exist within the games files, but there are some issues and limitations with this system that I did not like, so I decided to make my own. This system functions similarly to how bookshelves work in the base game, but it uses form lists instead of item categories to decide which items are valid. I have also added some custom features which will not influence the player experience, but which make the system easier to work with behind the scenes. Lastly, fixes from The Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (USSEP) have been forwarded where appropriate to ensure a bug-free player experience.
Below is a screenshot of a display shelf that can be built which displays Elder Scrolls and Black Books. (The cabinet is a modders resource created by Darkfox127.) X Markers are used to set the transform data for the items, similar to the book markers used in the base game for book shelves as well as the potion markers seen in a screenshot above. The potion markers are for an unused potion shelf which would have acted similarly to book shelves. Scripts exist for these shelves in the game's files, but they are identical to the bookshelf scripts except in filename. These scripts have been edited to make them functional.
Below is also a video taken during an early test of the custom display shelf system which used soul gems as the test items. Although a soul gem item type exists in the game data, this test uses my custom script which relies on form lists. The system places items successfully at the predetermined locations and properly accounts for removing items in a different order from that which they were placed in as well as physically moving the items away from their displays. As this was an early test, the markers for each item were not placed carefully and certain features, such as disabling physics on items, had not yet been added.
As development continues on this project, many more features are planned to be added. Most importantly, there will be a quest that involves speaking to the steward in Riften to purchase the house and then travelling to the property to begin construction. It will be possible to hire a steward, farmer, gardener, carriage driver, guards, and potentially more workers. Plans to hire workers without a steward and to summon humanoid creatures, namely undead and daedra, if you have the appropriate spells are being considered. The workers will need to have daily schedules to make them seem like they're living and working on the property. The workers are mostly intended for a system in which items produced on your property will automatically be sold, similar to the system in the Creation Club mod which adds Goldenhills Plantation. Two additional custom gameplay systems are planned as well.
One is inspired by a system in Oblivion's Battlehorn Castle DLC which would allow players to brew their own unique alcoholic beverages. Unlike in Oblivion, this system would not require players to interact with an NPC, but would rather allow them to interact with brewing vats on their own. Ingredients would be placed in the vats and a script would trigger which disables the menu for selecting which beverage to brew then sets a timer for when the beverages are ready. After which, players would be able to fill empty bottles until the vat is empty and a new beverage could be brewed.
Another planned system would allow players to breed the albino spiders added by the Dragonborn DLC so that spider-oriented player builds would be less tedious to manage. The specifics of this system still need more planning in order to finalize how it will function
Finally, compatibility patches for a few popular mods may be added some time after release. Current plans include compatibility for two mods, specifically. A patch is planned for Daedric Entity Restoration Project so that players may summon daedra from the mod as workers once they know the appropriate spells. Another is planned which would allow players using the Undeath mod to build their lair in either the cellar of the house or in a building which could occupy the plots of land for either the southwestern building or the west wing of the estate. This mod is being designed with modularity in mind, so other mod authors could potentially expand construction options in separate mods if they choose to do so as well.
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