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http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13085
REQUIRES OBSE 15 or better.

This mod is still a Beta mod. By downloading and using this mod you are agreeing to act as a Beta tester. Please note that this mod has several forums and forum threads for you to post feedback.

Bookmark these web addresses and use them to post any issues you may have with this Beta mod:
http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/index.php/board,162.0.html
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=839822
(Note that the Official Boards may require searching for "CraftyBits" to find the most current thread)
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13085

Welcome to Oblivion, CraftyBits style.

CraftyBits is a hands-on, expansive crafting system for Oblivion. Using CraftyBits you can cook, brew, skin, craft armor, tailor, work wood into items and weapons, mine, smelt, and smith weapons and armors.

CraftyBits is unique among crafting mods in that everything is done in front of the player, as if the character is actually doing the crafting. Very little of this system uses in-inventory menus or other "quick craft" methods. As much as possible the work of crafting is done in front of you working directly with the raw materials.

Again, this is a playable beta release. Some rough edges are to be expected. If you stumble over one please post and give us a bug report so we can try to fix the issue.

CraftyBits is a fully playable beta: it all works (when it isn't broken). For example, you can craft almost every vanilla weapon and armor in the game and several new ones, as well - but because the skill system (both checks and increases) hasn't been fully playtested for balance we consider it a beta release. The mod isn't finished. There are also entire sections of functionality still in planning stages that will be added, so it'll be a beta for a while.
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What's New?

Gawd, just about everything feels like. The underpinnings of the mod have been almost completely rewritten to use better functions that have recently been added to OBSE. The end result is more or less the same as before- it just works better, doesn't break and feels *much* more integrated with the rest of the game. The highlights are:

There is a CraftyBits Team!!

This update of CB has gotten way more attention than any previous release. The team rocks! We are: BenNM, CLShade, Dewshine, Koniption, meatbag999, Mikal Serity,Wizard of Thay, worm82075.

An In-Game Help System

Most of the crafts (though not all, yet) have easily accessed, engaging help guides. Check your +[CB Options] to read them. And if you need to quickly refer back to the last guide you were reading, just look away from what you are doing and hit your CB Key. Poof! It opens back up.

Lots of other stuff

Its almost midnight, I've been working on this all day (it was only supposed to be out this afternoon... but a well timed crash and some corrupted nif and texture files... like 984 of them... took a bit more time...) so I'll fill in this section later.

CLShade, you're a god!

I've been waiting for this to finish/go beta so I could finally start my realistic survival/archer type character . If I find any bugs I'll report them right away.

grwn

:woot: :woot: :woot:

Etcetera .

Thank you very much. Readme is lovely (I know how hard you worked on it), but I must admit I still have a question not covered there--

I'm upgrading from 0.54 (of course, you know I was already using the mod), but what am I to do with the CB Bloody Mess Glue plugin? I know the bathing engine is now integrated, but that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as Bloody Mess compatibility --or indeed http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13275 compatibility, which I was "passing through" via A Bloody Mess, or actually via the Bathing Mod itself, which has itself Bloody Mess compatibility plugins. So my strategy basically up to this point has been a sort of jury-rigged setup where CB was compatible with Bloody Mess which was compatible with the Bathing Mod, and it all seemed to work as far as I ever saw (not that I did so much extensive bathing and skinning that I would have necessarily found all possible problems).

Now, I'm just basically unsure that all the pieces are still available (since it was all held together by spit and bailing wire in the first place ).

EDIT: And it seems I'm going to make things worse by upgrading from the original Bathing Mod to http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17190 anyway, which is easier for you in that it's simplified, but I'm not completely happy about (mostly interested in the upgraded BM compatibility, not as pleased with the removal of the choice to have a bonus rather than a penalty, but really, I mostly use the penalty anyway, so it's really alright. I just don't like having functionality removed from a mod that I'm using).

I can accept it (temporarily), if, for example, I can wash the skinning residue off in water sources or with the Cleaning Rag (Bloody Mess), but not in a bathtub (Bathing mod BM compatibility), but I would be upset if, for example, the actions of the Bathing Engine of CB completely overrode/disabled the Bathing Mod, so that taking a bath in a tub no longer either added to my Personality or removed the penalty to my Personality (you get to choose whether people like you more for bathing, or dislike you more if you don't).

And in the meantime, what should I do with the Bloody Mess Glue plugin?

Otherwise, expecting no problems, and greatly looking forward to running the upgrade . Thanks!!

So, uhh, just to ask you even *more* questions (because I am sure you don't have enough that have already been asked).

Does this release have the ingredient/loot item placements we discussed before that I can replicate in other mods via Item Interchange?

Well done on getting this released in any case: you seem to have worked your socks off on this one.

Vac

Upgrading should be seamless. The BloodyMess glue plug should still work with it. It does in my game, anyhow.




And I'll look at the code for the tub and see about making a version that will detect, but... all the blood shaders should work the same, I just need to add the tub to the disease reduction feature. So I'll get on that.

EDIT: In fact, I've looked at the mod and think I found a way to make the bathing mod use the craftybits soaps so that the bonuses for them will apply if used (like the lye soap gives a sneak bonus and the scented soap ups personality for a short time but lowers sneak) so you can have the best of both, if it works.

And Vac, this version does not have a bunch of new added, aside from wood and jerky as far as I can tell. And the need for pelt integration has been addressed by script here so that Craftybits can use any pelt of a given type to craft an item that uses it, no matter where the pelt comes from.

grwn- Thanks. A god?! :ninja: (waits for lightning to strike) Wow. I'm glad you're enjoying the mod.

wmj- I don't think anything has changed about bathing from 054b except that there is now an easy way to turn the need for it on and off. I haven't added compatibility with other bathing mods. As far as I know dewshine A Bloody Mess addon is the only way to integrate CB's little skinning-bathing section with a full scale bathing mod. So you;re in the exact same boat (bath?) that you were in with 0.5.4b, pending some testing with A Bloody Mess addon. It should work, though now that I think about it it will probably disable the +[CB Options] control that turns bathing on and off.

The other addons by meatbag999 should still work fine, as well.

Vac- This version has no sweeping changes to leveled lists. I added a few for Inn Merchant's inventories but I doubt that's enough to warrant adding the mod to II, yet. That's on my list for 0.7

Upgrading
Upgrading from 054b should be smooth. The COBL Glue esp hasn't changed... which I just now realized might be a problem. I'll have to look at it and report back. It shouldn't affect your game, but a few new cooking features might be overwritten by it.

Other New Features

Expanded Compatibility

As dewshine mentioned above, some pelts from *other* mods now work with CraftyBits as well as a few other things. The following pelts from ANY mod should work for anything you can do with them (clothes and armor): deer, brown bear, black bear, wolf. ANY pelt from any mod can make hide glue and laminated hides.

COBL honey and brown sugar works where CB would normally require nectar. No COBL dependency, though. Also milk and eggs from any mod should work.

Lions, pathers, leopards and other cats are still a problem but they all skin like cats now. They all give you lion pelts, though. While that's a little odd from a snow leopard full compatibility will have to wait for an OOO plugin.

Wood Harvesting

Um, this is huge. You can now cut wood from ANY tree. There are softwood staves and planks, hardwood staves and planks, ironwood staves and yew staves. Each different type of stave gives you a different type of bow. You can also use your CB Key to turn the Arrow Shafts harvested from trees into wooden arrows.

The old "standing deadwood" trees are still there but you don't need them and they don't offer the variety of wood products. They'll most likely be gone in the next version.

Inns as Resource Merchants

Via scripting (to avoid compatibility issues) craftybits adds Misc Items services to the Inn keepers around Cyrodiil (outside of the cities) and stocks them with small quantities of basic supplies and tools.

+[CB Options]

A new misc item in your inventory for changing a few settings and for the ingame help system. Basically all the console commands to reset things or get the starting tools have been turned into menu items. No need to use the console anymore.

Jerky

Jerky is completely new. (And I just realized that I forgot to change the readme...(Sigh))

The jerky hooks are gone, as is the wonky maybe-it'll-work-maybe-they'll-hang-around-forever game. Instead:

- Any vanilla meat can be cut on the cutting board. This gives you 3 pieces of drying jerky.
- If left indoors they will be dried by the next day.
- If left outdoors your luck determines if they were eaten by an animal, but those that remain will be dry by the next day.
- If you pick them up the process starts over when you put them down.
- If you keep them in your inventory they will vanish after 2 days.

Not perfect, I know, but its WAY more stable than the jerky hook system. And that let me make some needed changes to the...

Campfire

The original campfire is still there (minus the jerky hooks and grill) and still works, but the new one is much better.

New version works as follows:
- Drop a piece of wood
- CB key it. It'll turn into logs
- Activate logs, container opens.
- Put more wood in.
- Activate logs again to light fire
- Activate while standing to put out the fire
- Activate sneaking while burning to put in more wood or remove ash.
- Activate sneaking while not burning to pick it up. All contents will be put in your inventory.

There are now 4 cooking spots around the fire.

The Readme

In the cold light of dawn I now realize that the readme is not really done. There are a number of changes that aren't included.

The ingame documents are killer, though.

So I'll work on the readme some and when its done I'll upload a separate package for it and remove the readme from the main download. That'll be a good time to patch the mod if needed, as well.

Yeah I was just going to say that this wasn't updated... the woodworking still refers to sneaking when it no longer needs to, yes?
And the skinning is updated but the crafting with is not. the info still says vanilla pelts can't be used when that has changed.
Did you delete the old campfire or is it still there?

The old campfire is still there. After thinking about it some I decided to wait until I can remove the entire camp. Since the original campfire is no longer needed for cooking then removing the whole camp makes it easier for players to use whatever camping mod they like. A few scripts need to shift around before I can do that, though, so the old fire remains.

Just to clarify- most of the "readme rewriting" actually went into making the ingame help books.

Hmm... looks like its time to brew another pot of coffee and hit the documentation again... My favorite thing to do...

OMG thank you thank you thank you for this mod - its pure L33TNESS (yes I said it!)..

anywho, I was wondering - where do the weapon (i.e bows swords armor ect) that you are to craft come from? Im using DP archery mod, and it comes with patches that change the damage of all game ingame bows from other mods than vanilla (it has plugins for MMM,OOO,CaC, RBP ect), but I'm not sure if they will effect crafted items?

Thanks again,
-P

Pr0tagoras- Thanks! The weapons and armor added by the mod are all loosely based on vanilla stats. The vanilla items themselves are all craftable, as well, and should retain any rebalanced stats you may have.

Rebalancing the CB items wouldn't be hard it would just be very time consuming. Its not on my list of things to do but its certainly fair game for anyone to make an addon for it.

Aloha,
C

Thanks for the update and the linky, will amend the list ! ! !

This looks fantastic, I just noticed it yesterday, keep up the good work, and congrats with 0.6! If there's any way I can help, feel free to ask, as this project looks great.

I have a question, that is probably painfully obvious: How do you cut the trees? I know how you used to cut them, but all the trees in my forest don't show up as activators (Meaning none) so I'm not sure how to get wood from them :shrug:

Reading the readme closely helps...

Nevermind, I don't seem to be able to get wood from trees

If I had a mod that adds trees (Like Unique landscapes) would that cause conflicts?

I noticed with the new version I can't make glue from hides anymore. Was this intentional? Also, when I laid out lots-o-jerky at once to dry it seems they don't. Excellent mod though, love it.

Congrats for the release.

I'll check it out and see what I can add even more.

Ooooo. Yeah, it might. If anyone else is using UL can you post and let me know if it works for you or not? CB is using some fairly straightforward OBSE trickery to identify the trees but if a mod added "tree" isn't actually a tree object in the CS then CB will miss it. I ran into that with some of the new trees in Cybiades.

Wulfgar_White_Eye: No- not intentional. I'll look into that. I'll also look into the jerky, as well.

wrinklyninja: thanks!

Aloha,
CLS

From what I have seen UL doesn't interfere with the trees producing wood. What I have noticed is that if you remove a plugin [non-craftybits] the trees will not give wood. However, opening Wyre Bash solves the issue and when you go back into oblivion it should work fine.

Have you considered making fallen logs harvestable instead of trees? It might be a better medium ground than the old way (which was hard to find trees that gave wood) and the new (which is a little too easy). Just an idea.

Hmm, I went into Wrye Bash, and then when I approached a tree, I got a message saying "Pine" I attacked it with my dagger, and it said I was too tired to cut (Understandable, I had very low fatigue) So I went to my house to get a hatchet (House is at Shadeleaf Copse) and when I did, I checked the surrounding trees; no message, I went back to the tree I got the first message at, no more message, I tried cutting it, and was unfortunatly not successful

Because you started with a dagger, you began to score a board. You must complete this task before you can cut any other type of wood. Get a nap to restore you fatigue, finish scoring the board with the dagger, and then use an axe to pry it loose. Once that is finished you can chop wood.

There we go! Thanks!

Personally I don't think that an abundance of wood is an issue because, IMO, if you're in a forest your ability to get wood shouldn't be limited.

True, but realistically harvesting wood kills a tree. In the Morrowind equivalent of this mod, the tree would be disabled after a certain amount of hacks. Although I can't say I am a fan of that method, I think it not 100% right to harvest infinite wood from the tree outside your door. Fallen trees are a bit rarer and usually deeper in forests (though not always of course)....so it takes a bit more effort. Either that or set a limit per tree for a certain time period, just like alchemic ingredients on plants.

I'm wondering - is it possible to make http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10967 I noticed you can't skin dreughs, which is dissapointing considering I wanted to use the Dreugh Armor. What about http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16255? A little crazier, but I think it could fit in Craftybits.

I've been thinking, why not let players create more "uber" items? Instead of having a bunch of leather and fur armors, they can create a really elaborate decorated armor, that could be very powerful. Of course, you'd probably need a lot of skill to make them. So here's my idea: inspirations. These are maybe things that pop into the players head in an unexpected manner, and the player immedietly writes and sketches out the plans (and the estimated needed materials). What they draw is dependant on their fame/infamy (fame allows em to craft more paladin like armors, infamy is the opposite, and a rounded balance would give some more neutral.) It could also be dependant on your armor skill (higher light armor will most likely give you an idea for light armor). Finally, your armorer (and maybe security, if appropiate) will determine the quality of the outcome. This could be an immersive way to add new toys to the game without simply sticking it in the March Rider or some random Ayleid Ruin.

Just an idea. My modders' resource list has some cool stuff to check out...

SheersShaw, some of what you are talking about may surface in the expanded alchemy/magic area of Craftybits that is still in the planning stages. The use of shell, Both crab and Dreugh has been kicked about over at the wormhole. The Craftybits team would also like to see this happen.

Decorated fur already comes in Frans, so the textures for it are out there.
Currently though I think the goal is to make it so that the player can use ingame items to make ingame stuff. Tailoring, for example, is being expanded to allow for the crafting of upper class clothes. Once this is done then other meshes can be brought into the mix.