Adding the NPC, Page 1

I like to add physical things (items, NPCs) first, since that’s the easy part. So from the outline above, it looks like we need an NPC in the South Wall and a book in the Ald-Ruhn Mages Guild under the bed. WAIT! Don’t just go do this yet…the book especially has some special requirements. So let’s start with the NPC.

1. 1. Click on the NPC tab in the Object window of the CS. Now right-click on any of the entries and select “new”. A box should come up that looks like this (I’ve labeled each area with the number of the step below that explains it). Just ignore the Argonian acrobat stuff for now:

1. 2. Now, once we fill in all the boxes (or most of them), we’ll have a new NPC. I try to keep my NPC names as “morrowind-ish” as possible, which is why I chose the name I did.
3. 1. a. We need a unique ID for Madera, and I like the naming convention of using my initials at the front of the ID. The ID is what the game uses to identify the object. So in the ID box I type “sd_madera_hleran” without the quotes. I use underscores because spaces, while acceptable to the CS, may cause problems later if I want to use my NPC in a script, for example.
      
      b. In the Name box I type in Madera Hleran, just how I want it to appear in-game.
      
      c. Leave the Script drop-down box blank. We won’t be needing it for now. If there were a script attached to this NPC to make her do something, like move around or disappear, we would need to write her script, then select it in this box. Fortunately, there isn’t, so don’t worry about this right now.
   3. d. In the Race drop-down, choose Dark Elf, then check the little box next to it that says “Female”.
      
      e. You may have noticed when you did step D, the lists in the two scroll boxes to the right changed. These are the face and hair choices you have for this character. You can select whatever you want for these. I just left them on whatever was highlighted when they came up.
   5. f. Next we see the Class and Level boxes. What you choose here for the NPC’s class will affect what dialogue options she has as a default. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter too much in our case, but for completeness, I chose Madera to be a Nightblade, level 8. I chose this because then it makes sense for her to be hanging around both the Thieves guild and the Mages guild.
   7. g. Like the Class choice, the choice of Faction will also influence default dialogue options, but it also doesn’t matter in our case. I set Madera as an Operative in the Thieves Guild. She is in the South Wall, after all! Also, NPC’s aren’t like the PC; they can only belong to one faction.
      
      h. The three check boxes below this should be left blank for now. Essential means that if you killed the NPC, you’d get the little box in game that says “with this character’s death you have broken the train of prophecy…” or whatever the exact words are. Obviously Madera is not essential to the main quest, so we leave this unchecked. Corpses Persist means that if you kill her, her corpse would stay forever and not disappear. Respawn means if you killed her, her corpse would disappear after 72 game hours, then when you came back she’d be alive again! This is mainly used for creatures, not NPCs. A good example of creatures that re-spawn are the rats in the Vivec Arena storage (where you go to join the Morag Tong).
   9. i. Now, it’s up to you whether you want to manually choose the numbers for ALL of Ms. Hleran’s stats. If you want to, go to the box that says “Auto-Calculate Stats” and un-check it. Now you can play with the numbers all you want. As for me, I left it checked. The CS calculates the stats based on the class and level you choose, and they look OK to me.
   11. j. One last thing. Madera Hleran needs clothes! Well, I guess you could have her stand there naked, but that would be kind of strange. Move the box so you can see the object window, and click on the Clothing tab. Scroll down a little until you find all of the “common” clothes. Click and drag a common shirt over into the Items area of the NPC box. Do the same with a skirt or pants, and some shoes. Now she’ll be dressed when you place her in the world. If you want, click on the Spells tab and it will show a list of spells that come “standard” with a level 8 Nightblade. You can add spells to her if you want by clicking and dragging from the Spellmaking tab in the Object window, but I’m leaving those as is.
       

The NPC pg. 2