I want to learn how to create mods for fallout 4? Any Recommendations?

[✨ZV✨]

Would anyone have any recommendations for learning how to create mods in fallout 4

[-={LG}=-]

Download the Fallout 4 creation kit:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1946160/Fallout_4_Creation_Kit/

Check out the reviews for links to a bunch of youtube videos on how to use it. Get some of your favorite mods and look at them in Creation Kit to see what they did. Keep banging around until you start getting good. Might take a while.

[SkunkPlaysGames]

There are three different places you need to focus depending on the scope of your mod and what skill set you are bringing to the table. I'll speak just to the meta of modding and not get into the minutiae. I don't know your experience level so I can only speak very simply but I don't want it to come across condescendingly.

The three main things are:
The Creation Kit
FO4Edit
Scripting

The Creation Kit is a useful interface for building your mods and integral to certain elements of modding like dialogue. You can make a variety of mods through FO4Edit alone but certain things like dialogue as mentioned or placing objects within the worldspace, these things are almost impossible without the Creation Kit. The vast majority of modding of course takes place primarily within the Creation Kit but not all.

FO4Edit is a great tool for manipulating plug-ins (mods) without using the Creation Kit. It can be used to build on, trim down, or create completely new mods. It is useful for determining where changes conflict with the base game and other mods. It is great for diagnosing errors that could potentially cause crashes. especially as things get complicated (e.g. mods which require many other mods to function.)

Scripting is done within the Creation Kit but is on a notepad like interface more or less tacked on to the Creation Kit. The language is called Papyrus and it works by event calls from the game and function execution from the script. This allows for complex interaction with the world based on the fulfillment of certain criteria.

The following is an example of a working script for a mod I made where you could equip settlers by shooting them with a laser pistol. The script fires on a settler upon being hit by a laser from the pistol in question. When struck, this script unequips the settler, removes all of their items, adds new items to them, and equips those items if necessary, in this case with clothing and gear befitting an upper class male civilian. The entire script is as follows:

Scriptname ZIQ_EquipWealthyMScript extends activemagiceffect

; Properties

ObjectReference Property pBank Auto Const
Armor Property pArmor Auto Const
Weapon Property pWeapon Auto Const
Ammo Property pAmmo Auto Const
Potion Property pDrug Auto Const
Potion Property pStimpak Auto Const
MiscObject Property pCaps Auto Const

; Events

Event OnEffectStart(Actor akTarget, Actor AkCaster)

int rR = Utility.RandomInt(80, 270)

; Unequip current gear

akTarget.UnEquipAll()
akTarget.RemoveAllItems(pBank)

; Add items
akTarget.AddItem(pDrug)
akTarget.AddItem(pStimpak, 3)
akTarget.AddItem(pCaps, rR)
; Equip Items
akTarget.EquipItem(pWeapon)
akTarget.EquipItem(pAmmo)
; Equip armor
akTarget.EquipItem(pArmor)

EndEvent

Depending on your knowledge of coding you might be able to parse a lot of information from this, or you may only be able to intuit a bit about it, but the most important thing to remember is that there are two elements that have to interact simultaneously: the engine and the script.

The game needs to assign properties actual value in order for the script to then tell those properties what to do and when. Properties have an almost infinite scope. They can be the player, an NPC, a blood decal, a quest, a location, a pile of dust, a pebble, they can be virtually anything.

The script is blind in the sense that it doesn't actually care what the properties are, it simply affects them as the code instructs it to do with or without the properties being assigned. In order for the script to affect anything the properties must be declared in the script and assigned in the game (via Creation Kit or otherwise.)

For clarity sake I named them logically, pArmor, pWeapon, etc. but they could just have easily been called KNBLIAF90y. The script simply sees EquipItem(KNBLIAF90y) and says okay, equip KNBLIAF90y. The Creation Kit assigns a specific item to KNBLIAF90y, such as a combat rifle, so when the script says EquipItem(KNBLIAF90y) it equips the character with a combat rifle.

Just about everything I learned initially about modding Fallout 4 came from one source, a youtuber going by Seddon4494.
https://www.youtube.com/@Seddon4494

His tutorials were invaluable in getting me started. After that I mostly learned by doing. Reverse engineering is also incredibly helpful which can sometimes come from the game itself but also by modders who achieved similar goals.

Good luck and if you have any questions I'll try to help as best as I can if I am able.

[Material Defender]

here's a wiki on the creation kit, copied from the official wiki
https://falloutck.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page

The official wiki seems to be out of commission at the moment, so this is the best alternative

[=BIA=ootkin]

What about using commonlibf4 and/or f4se? i cannot find nothing online...

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Skullflow:

What about using commonlibf4 and/or f4se? i cannot find nothing online...

F4SE is a script editor, yes. Not what you use to make a mod though, which is why you "can't find anything online" about using it in this manner.

[the_asphyx]

Youtube has lots of Creation Kit tutorials...

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by the_asphyx:

Youtube has lots of Creation Kit tutorials...

^^ a LOT of them. Some better than others, but only when you start looking at creators doing their thing, will you find ones that you want to tap.