There was a mod idea I wanted to try...close to a year ago now, but I never sat down to try at it; partially because I have no idea where to start. I have the most basic experience with item adding and placing so the idea of starting a mod that starts messing with scripts is daunting. But I am hoping that, if I give you guys the general structure, I could get some good instruction.

Combining multiple caught souls into a single larger soul gem, using the alchemy window.

An empty soul gem would act as the apparatus to open the window, appearing on the top row, and disabling the 3 other windows.
Instead of an effects list the display shows the (max) capacity of each filled gem that is to be used.*
4 lower windows open the misc items window, to be selected with filled soul gems
- display for soul-less items would show "incompatible"
- attempted combination with an "incompatible" item does not work (activate) / gives a message
New soul gem is entitled "Mixed" with the added values of the (up to) 4 other gems.

There are a few things where I do not know if they are possible, such as copying and editing how the alchemy window works. Activating 4 gems simultaneously, or in succession. (ie, can the regular function of filled soul gems be used, or is a separate system of adding then implanting needed?).


And a simple yes or no on some of these points will be fine.
Thanks for reading.

Unfortunately, what you described sounds pretty impossible. MAYBE, but I'm saying maybe because I have absolutely no knowledge about it, with some heavy scripting extenders, like via MGE or something, but definitively no with ordinary scripting. However I don't think it's even possible with extenders, it's too much messing with what's probably hard coded, but I'll let someone more instructed to give you a reply on that.

I figured. I'll keep waiting though.


Thanks for the response.

While you may not be able to use the alchemy window, you may be able to achieve the same result just through scripting, i.e. using an activator to check for something in your inventory, then substituting a new filled soulgem. Just guessing because I know that some things with soul gems are hard coded, which limits what you can do with them. But new things with soulgems are always welcome, there aren't too many mods, beyond texture replacers, that try to do anything with them. There are a few though, and combining them in a soul gem lab mod would be cool.

You could use (create or re-texture) a set of gem crafting/manipulation apparatuses to take the place of the alchemy window which would also serve to break the script up (and also be more interesting visually). Just an idea.

First and last bump.


If anyone has any ideas just where to start looking I would appreciate it. I tend to break and fix and learn things on my own but I have no idea where to look into script or the gem functions, or anything really.
Point me in a direction I will be able to follow it away from here.

as this sounds like you might begin scripting then I would recommend starting here: (MWSFD) MorroWind Scripting For Dummies. Make sure to get version 9.
You say that you like to...



then scripting is exactly what you need. I am not going to say this would be easy (it might be, I dunno. I'm still kinda new at this myself) but you might be able to come up with a method for handling this.

ST

:celebration:

I might stumble back in here in another year with something halfway presentable.

If you're going down the scripting route, have a look at Kentarus' Soulgem Crafting mod (at PES). It's not directly what you want to do, but it has some elements that you can draw on - an activator with an attached script that manipulates soulgems in the players inventory (checks for the presence of some items and substitutes soulgems under certain conditions). I guess you could use containers rather than the player's inventory if you want, though I haven't seen a script for that, though I seem to remember a soulgem crushing mod that used containers, but I can't remember the details.

But I concur with getting the latest scripting for dummies along with the Morrowind Script Library as a starting point.