What is it?
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With the CS you can create new items, NPCs, spells, races, birthsigns, towns, dungeons,
classes, factions (i.e. guilds), quests, or alter what’s provided with the game. There are
still some things you cannot do with the CS, and there are some things you should not do
with it. When working with the CS, keep in mind the reason it was provided: to extend
the life of Oblivion as a product for sale. Period. The designers of the game may feel
some sense of altruism in releasing the CS, but you’re praying for a jackalope sighting if
you attach the same to those who published the game. They did it to increase profit. With
this in mind realize you cannot create your own “game” with the CS, there are built in
limitations. Otherwise, why buy “their game”, or a “future game” from them when you
can make your own. So when you want to cry because you can’t create your own
.esm
file (we’ll get to this), or wonder why you can’t create new Skills, Attributes, or Spell
Effects, new or different ‘bodies’ for Races and curse and kick at the shortsightedness of
those who created/limited the Scripting commands and functions, relax; just enjoy the
game, and have fun modding.
How a plug-in works:
When you work on your plug-in, or mod, you are not actually changing anything in the
Oblivion.esm file. You are making changes stored as an
.esp
file. When the game is
loaded, the game loads an
.esm
(or more than one), and then loads any plug-ins. The game
then makes changes based upon each plug-in as it is loaded, in order. What this means is,
you cannot do anything that can ruin the game itself. If a plug-in causes problems, just
exit the game, open up the Data Files menu, uncheck the plug-in(s) causing problems,
and click Play. Master files cannot be affected in any way.
What you can do with the TESCS:
What you are able to do is quite a lot, but can be summarized this way:
• You can alter almost everything within the game.
• You can add new objects (weapons, spells, races, land, towns, dungeons, etc) by re-
using what is provided within the CS, or creating new ones based off of what is
provided.
• You can modify objects within the CS to do something different.
• You can modify the way the game world operates and how the player interacts with
it.
•
Create and/or modify an
.esp
file.
What you cannot do with the TESCS:
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Oblivion Mod Maker’s Manual
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What you cannot accomplish is actually quite small, but very absolute. This is done to
protect the stability of the game, and enable mods produced by different people with
different ideas to work together if installed, and loaded in a game at the same time. Also
to protect the profit line of the game. You cannot:
• Create new meshes or textures for items or races in the game.
• Create/delete spell effects used to create spells within the CS.
• Create or delete skills or attributes.
• Make changes to the physics engine (though you can alter some aspects of how it
operates).
• Create or alter an .esm file.
• Create or alter an .ess file.
Note: Scripting enables you to accomplish things the designers may not have thought of,
or get around inherent limitations of the game. This was intentional, but scripting also
has a great many limitations to prevent abuse, maintain stability, and to keep the spirit of
the game in line with what is stated in the above bullets.
What is an ESM/ESP/ESS/INI file?
These are the files that hold all the information, or data, the game uses to run. In simple
terms:
•
.ESM (Elder Scrolls Master) files are the master files that contain all the data to play
the game; besides the models, textures or sound. The Oblivion.exe file holds the data
on how the game functions. This keeps things simple, and also why unlike other
games you don’t need to install a 2.0 GB file on your hard drive to play. You cannot
alter, change, modify, or delete anything in an
.esm
file with the CS. Even if you try.
Why did Bethesda do that? So we can’t screw the game up and spend all our time on
the phone with Bethesda’s customer service bitching and complaining about their
stupid game that we screwed up.
•
.ESP (Elder Scrolls Plug-in) files are the plug-in files that we create when we save
changes we have made to the game. We can alter, modify, add, and delete these files
to our late-night, bleary-eyed, caffeine-induced heart’s content. Then post it on the
Internet for others to try out. You can even do this to someone else’s
.esp
file you’ve
downloaded from the Internet. Some few have done this to modify and improve a
good mod that just needed a few tweaks to make it a great mod. Of course, some post
dirty/buggy mods too. Thankfully, this is somewhat rare.
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Oblivion Mod Maker’s Manual
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•
.ESS (Elder Scrolls Save) files are your saved game files. Lots of people like to make
saved game editors to cheat and boost their character’s abilities for games that are
published, especially RPGs. I have even seen some for Oblivion. Why? With the CS
you can already do this outside of gameplay, or with the console in game. You
shouldn’t have any reason to mess with this file.
•
Oblivion.ini This specific file provides data for the game to start up and run. I don’t
suggest you mess with this file unless you know exactly what you are doing.
However, there are tweaks you can do to this file to improve or fix your game if it has
trouble running properly. Some mods also force you to make minor changes to it for
them to run properly. If you wish to make changes to this file, make a back up copy
first. If you screw it up or your changes cause problems you can always replace it
with an unchanged copy.
If you want to know what any other file is, don’t worry about it. You don’t need to know.
You’ll most likely screw something up anyway, so just leave everything else alone unless
you have obtained a screw-up-your-computer-but-good-and-still-be-able-to-fix-it-
college-degree.
So then, what the heck are these nif, kf, dds, bsa, etc. for?
You just have to know, don’t you? Like me you can’t leave well enough alone, you
just have to know. Fair enough. I’ll do my best to explain each:
.bsa – These files have all the sounds, meshes and textures stored in them. These files can
be quite large; there are also utilities created by several skilled programmers that enable
you to open the .bsa and view, extract, or add files to it.
.dds - The type of art file used as a texture for a mesh. You need to download plugins to
modify or make .dds files in various programs.
.kf - This file comes along with a .nif file for animation purposes.
.mp3 - This is a compressed audio file that provides music and voices for the game.
.nif - This file is the mesh for all physical objects in the game. Texture files are
associated/linked with it. All texture files are .dds. If an object has animation then a .kf
file usually will be associated with a .nif. Some .nif files may also have a second .nif file
that holds additional data for its animation (such as an activator).
Opening Multiple Construction Set windows:
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Yes, you can do this. Simply open up the
oblivion.ini
file and add
‘AllowMultipleEditors=1’ somewhere in the general section on a line by itself. Now you
can open multiple windows of the CS at one time.
Oblivion.ini Directory:
My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini
Note: Be advised, the CS is not the most stable program ever created. I do not
recommend having extra multiple Construction Sets open for more than reference to a
master file’s or mod’s contents. Going crazy with this has resulted in crashing some of
the CS windows on my system. But that may just be me.
Enabling screen shots:
Dying to get some screenshots posted of your mod? Open up the Oblivion.ini, in the
Display section, you will find bAllowScreenShot=0. Change the ‘0’ to a ‘1’. Now when
playing in game, when you want to take a screen shot, just tap the
Print Screen
button.
A screenshot will be created in your
Oblivion
folder on your Hard Drive, in
.bmp
format.
Oblivion.ini Directory:
My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini
Note: Screenshots cannot be taken if you have Anti-Aliasing enabled. Be sure to disable
this in your Video settings before you try to take screenshots.
How do I load files into the CS?
When you load files into the CS it works in a similar way to starting a game with a plug-
in. Click any .esp files you want loaded, you may click more than one. Highlight the one
you want active. Any changes made to any .esp files loaded will all be saved to the active
.esp. Now, you need to keep something in mind here; if you make a change to an .esp that
is loaded but is not the active .esp, you might just have made your .esp dependent. If you
load an .esm file that an active .esp is not dependent on, and at any point click the Save
button, the .esp file will become dependent upon that .esm plus any other .esm files it is
already dependent on. Keep this in mind when choosing what you want to load and base
your .esp off of. A cautionary note here, you do not have to place a check next to an .esm.
For when loading an .esp, the game will load any .esm files an .esp is dependent on.
However, I have generated errors when doings this at times (no clue why, and it doesn’t
happen often or with all plug-ins). I suggest you always mark what you want to load. If
you don’t want to load any .esp files, just .esm files, check the box next to those you wish
to load. There is no need to make one active; the active button is only for .esp files. The
.esm files always load first, then .esp files that are marked. The .esp files are listed in the
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Data Files window from top to bottom, by date (oldest date at the top, newest at the
bottom). The date stamp on an .esp is when last Saved.
I don’t have KOTN/SI, but the mod I downloaded needs it/them to run!
Sorry, but you will have to go buy them.
Can I download the TESCS, Oblivion, KOTN, and/or SI from the Internet?
You can only download the CS from: http://www.elderscrolls.com/, but downloading the
expansions or Oblivion itself is Illegal.
I bought Oblivion, so it’s legal for me to use a no-CD crack, right?
Wrong. Use of a no-CD crack is illegal, period.
What about Horse Armor and other downloadable content?
Well, you can download them from the internet but they do cost money, although you can
get all but one of the downloadable content by purchasing KOTN; they are included on
the CD. (The Fighters Stronghold is the mod not included, why? Because KOTN was
released before Fighters Stronghold.)
What TESCS version have I got?
First of all, you should always have the latest version of the CS. At the moment the latest
version of the CS is 1.2.404. You want to know what version you have, click on the Help
Menu on the toolbar, and then click about. This will bring up the window that is at the
beginning of this manual. The window has your version number right up the top.
I have bought KOTN, but the quest wont start!
This is a bug in KOTN, sometimes the quest begins sometimes it doesn’t. To start the
quest simply open the console with the tilde key () and type the following: SetStage
ndpilgrim 0.
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