I've been considering trying to create a mod, I've got a script which I think would work with some slight modification, but I'm not sure if what I want to accomplish is actually possible. Namely, is it possible to create a custom soul gem that functions as a black soul gem, capable of trapping humanoid souls, or is this ability something hardwired into the game like the reusable properties of Azura's Star, and thus not capable of being replicated through the toolset?

You can already make Black Soul Gems easy enough in the game. You have to find the correct location (Four available) and have the correct day and a Soul Trap spell

Edit: But I suppose it's possible is you really want to.

Yes, I'm aware of being able to make regular black soul gems, what I want to know is if it would be possible to create a customized black soul gem, not a replacer, but something separate. For example, let's say I wanted to create a black soul tomato, would it be possible and how?

I dunno... Copy the entry of the Black Soul Gem and change the mesh and texture to that of the Black Soul Tomato. That what I would try and do

I don't think you can do it directly. The behaviour of the black soul gem is hardcoded to the editorID of the black soul gem, I believe.

You can probably do a lot of work arounds, but it would take a lot of work.

Thought that might be the case. I'll be needing the aid of someone who knows more about scripting than I do then. Even then I'm not sure if it would be possible or not. I imagine it would require the use of OBSE to achieve the desired effect. Don't get why they had to make things so needlessly complicated for modding Oblivion like this, would it have really killed them to just include a check box in the editor "Can trap human souls?"

If I had to guess, it would be as simple as editing the black soul gem to have a different model (possible through the CS if you have BSAs unpacked) and then save it with a different FormID.

All you need to do is duplicate the original record in the CS. That gives you the new editor ID and Form ID. Then you can change the EDID and anything else to whatever you want.


Edit: ...already answered on the Nexus forum.

Tried it, functions fine as a normal soul gem, but can't capture humanoid souls.

The problem, I believe, is that once you change the editorID and FormID of a Black Soul Gem, it no longer behaves as a black soul gem. The game is hardcoded to recognize the formID and/or EditorID of the soul gems, the welkynd stones and the varla stones, I'm pretty sure.

I thought there were scripts or something for them... If you change the FormID in TES4Edit, it will prompt you with the references that need to be changed. Copy down that list, and see what you need to change.

Only scripts it's used in are the script for the necromancer shrines and the script for Vaermina's shrine, neither one effects Soul Trap of course. Bugger.

Unfortunately, no. No scripts on black soul gems (except for the Colossal Black Soul Gem, where the script prevents you from using it to recharge items), and the only scripts that reference them are a few quest scripts that see if you have one, and the altar script that gives you one.

The ability to ensnare human souls is hardcoded behaviour, and recognizes the ID of the black soul gem itself.

This is why mods like the Black Azura's Star tend to have hidden black soul gems that are added to the player invisibly in order to do all the real work of capturing souls.

Which is an option for the OP. Make a fake black soul gem out of a tomato, then give the player a real one every time he closes his inventory (adjust the encumbrance as necessary).

Or since custom normal soul gems function fine, I could create a grand soul gem and script it to swap in and out with a black soul gem whenever entering or exiting the inventory. I assume this script would need to be combined with the script for making it reusable? Hrm, and a script to check for the type of soul inside and adjust accordingly, if that's possible. Again I say, why is this all so pointlessly complicated? They could have just put a check box in the construction set that you could use to make a soul gem able to capture humanoid souls.

I oft wo nder the same thing. maybe the devs like makign things a pain for us