Custom Ore Vein

Custom Ore Veins

This page is about how to make ore veins give the player something besides the standard ore pieces (iron, corundum, orichalcum, etc.), either a custom ore or some other item, as long as it is classified as a MiscItem in the Creation Kit. This page addresses mining for objects that require non-standard ore meshes; if the custom ore uses the standard Skyrim meshes, follow the directions for creating a new mining node object, a new mined object, and set up a mining node as normal.

This operation requires:

• Creation Kit
• BSA Unpacker, a free tool that can extract files from core game archives

Note: The "Mining Node" will be whatever the player walks up to in-game and activates in order to mine the object. The "Mined Object" will be what the player receives when he activates the Mining Node. "ID" is the same thing as "editorID" although the latter is referred to at times for clarity.

Creating A New Mining Node Object

In the Creation Kit, click All in the Object Window, and then type "MineOre" into the search box, this will bring up a list of ore veins that can be used to create a custom mining node. Choose one that will fit with the item that will be mined from the node, for example "MineOreIron01".

1. Double-click the object (e.g. "MineOreIron01"), this will bring up the object's properties window
2. Make sure that "MineOreScript" is present in the Scripts section, every viable ore vein has this
3. Change the editorID in the field in the upper left marked "ID" to something unique
4. Click 'OK' and create a new form, remember what the editorID is!

Creating A New Mined Object

1. In the Object Window, go to the Items --> MiscItem menu and choose an object (it can be any MiscItem)
2. Double-click the object to open the object properties window
3. Change the editorID in the field in the upper left marked "ID" to something unique
4. Change the Name to whatever the mined object is to be called
5. Click 'OK' and create a new form, remember what the editorID is!

Create A Folder For The Mined Object(s)

1. In Skyrim's Data folder, make sure this folder and file path exists: /data/meshes/dungeons/mines/ore/

• Note that /ore/ is a folder that will contain the mesh for the Mined Object

Retrieve The Model (.nif) For The Mined Object

1. Using BSA Unpacker, open "Skyrim - Meshes.bsa" which will be located in Skyrim's data folder, the same folder where .esp files and other mods and mod resources are stored, not the same folder as the Skyrim executable.
2. All of the models are in the form of .nif files, find the desired file and extract it to the /ore/ folder

Use The Extracted Model For The Mined Object

1. Go back to the Mined Object that was created, open the object properties window for that object
2. In the lower-left of the window there is an Edit button for the model, click this button (this will bring up another window)
3. Click Edit to change the "Model File Name"
4. Navigate to the /ore/ folder where the model was extracted and choose the .nif file for the mined object

Set The Ore Property For The Mining Node

1. Open the object properties window for the Mining Node object
2. Select the "MineOreScript" in the Scripts section, and click the Properties button
3. Select the "Ore" property in the property list
4. Click the drop-down menu that appears on the right, select the editorID of the Mined Object that was created (only editorID's appear in this menu, not names)
5. Click OK, and then click OK to save the changes to the Mining Node object

Now everything has been set up for the player to mine the custom object from the mining node, all that remains is to set up the mining node in the game. Here are brief instructions for creating a mining node in the game world:

1. Place the Mining Node object in the game world and situate it via the Render window
2. Click All in the object window and type "mining", this will bring up the mining furniture
3. Choose the appropriate mining furniture and place it near the Mining Node via the Render window
4. In the Render window, give both the Mining Node AND the mining furniture unique editorID's
   • Note: this is different than the editorID given in the Object window! It is good to use an ID that indicates the location and type of object, like "KolskeggrMineCustomNode1". The mining node and furniture must have IDs that are different from each other and any other IDs in the game.
5. In the Render window, double-click the mining node object and click the "Linked Ref" tab
6. Right-click in the field and select New, then click the Select Reference in Render Window button
7. Double-click the mining furniture that was placed for that node in the Render window
8. Run Skyrim, making sure your mod is loaded, and mine the custom object!