How to create a follower in Skyrim

[Baron Baconeer]

Greetings, my little Dovahkids. Today Unca Baron (AND HUNDRED2 THE GREAT RESEARCHER WHO WAS LEFT OUT BECAUSE OF GENERAL SHATTERBRAINEDNESS)is going to teach you how to make real followers in the mystical land of Skyrim.

There are three things you are going to need:

1. Steam

2. Skyrim

3. A brain

First, let's open steam library, and below that, the button usually saying all games. Switch it to tools and download the program simply called Creation kit and open it.

The program itself is a clusterfuck. When it opens, click file on the upper left corned and choose data. The result should look like this:

However, depending on the mods you have, you'll most likely have different things or none at all. Double click the Skyrim.esp until it becomes checked like in the picture and set it as an active file.

Now begins a long load that may seem like that the program crashes. Just give it time. There'll also be a crapload of popups, just say yes to all of them. The screen opening should look about like this:

Right click the part with the names and choose new.

This is where our new brave actor's (The name the engine refers to NPC:s at) most basic stuff will be chosen. It's quite simple when you get the basics:

ID: The name of the file.

Name: In-game name.

Short name: Name that appears in, for example, subtitles.

Of the numerous boxes below, you should check at least 'Unique' so that he will be the only example of his kind. Essential is also good if you tend to accidentally kill your followers.

The race chooses what the actor actually is. For example, ImperialRace is your typical imperial. Checking the box saying female will turn the actor female (Duh.) The skin has different texture choices, but when making a humanoid follower you should leave those alone. The faraway model doesn't matter here, and voice chooses the voice acting. MaleNord is a good choice because it has all the necessary voice acting. Deathitem doesn't again matter because we don't want to kill him, and the other stuff is just artifact crap from previous Bethesda titles. There's also the preview box below, which will be useful soon, and you should check it. It all should look something like this:

The next section, Stats, is even simpler. Just type in the wanted level, choose class (Using farmer here) and check the Auto calc stats which does all your work for you.

The next is factions. Again, click the empty field, and by choosing new add two factions: Potentialfollowerfaction and Currentfollowerfaction. Then click the zero in front of Currentfollowerfaction and change it to -1. These two make it so that you don't have to fiddle with quests and dialogue, which are a serious pain in the ass. Moving on.

Skipping over the next two, Relationship (We'll do that later) and keywords to the AI data. Here are three things you should fiddle with: Confidence, combat style and assistance. Confidence can be set up to a level you like, for example I'm going to make our farmer cowardly. The combat style decides the way the actor fights, for example csHumanMeleeLvl1 is very basic melee fighting. Onwards. Assistance should be "Helps allies and friends."

We skip over AI Packages to Inventory. First, we'll choose the clothing the character has. I personally have no idea how to make custom ones, so we'll choose prebuilt. Default outfits are the outfits character wears usually, and Sleep outfit when sleeping, simply enough. Sleep outfit isn't necessary, especially as out hero here is never going to sleep. After choosing the outfit click the preview again to update the view. If everything is correct, the outfit should show up. Next, we're giving him a weapon. Click the inventory field and, yet again, choose new. Some item called lightbulb should show up. Then below choose the thing saying object and take a weapon you wish him to have. The same thing also works in adding other items in his inventory. The end result should look something like this:

Next, we fiddle right into the end of the line. Character gen parts and character gen morphs decide the final look of the character. Just fiddle around until you get character you like.

After we're done with this, choose ok at the left bottom corner. Then, back in the menu where the actors were, choose quest, and under that, relationship. Similarly to making the actor choose new. The id is yet again the name of the file. Now you should put the choices like this:

Parent: The ID of the NPC you just made

Child: Player

Relationship Level: Ally

This should be the result.

Now, the follower itself is all done, but he doesn't exist in the world yet. Turn your view to the cell view window next to the object window. Choose the place where you wish him to be and double click it. A place should pop up in the render window. You can move about the render by scrolling and holding shift down When you find a good spot, just drag the actor from the object window.

And now, save the whole thing with whatever name you want, start Skyrim, choose data files, check your mod and start playing. And...

Here we go. Have fun and whatnot.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Baron Baconeer

[VMR]

From now on, your our Creation Kit tutor.

[Darkstar]

That actually looks scarily like him.

[Baron Baconeer]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. A major part of this stuff is also credited to Hundy, with whom we spent about three days unraveling the secrets of the Skyrim.

[Silver Dot]

didn't credit hun-

fuck

it's a shame that certain people don't have the creation kit huh

nice job yo, i'm hoping you posted this find on official forums or something?

Edited February 12, 2012 by Silver Dot

[BlueYoshi97]

There are three things you are going to need:

1. Steam

2. Skyrim

3. A brain

were do u downlod a brain

[Chikennugget1]

I've tried to create a giant chicken boss, I've placed it outside of Whiterun, but that's a pain to set my plugin as active, so after reloading x times the creation kit I could finally set it as active, but once I launch the game the "Data files" is locked, I can't load my plugin.

Helppppp ?

Edited February 12, 2012 by Chikennugget1

[Baron Baconeer]

I've tried to create a giant chicken boss, I've placed it outside of Whiterun, but that's a pain to set my plugin as active, so after reloading x times the creation kit I could finally set it as active, but once I launch the game the "Data files" is locked, I can't load my plugin.

Helppppp ?

Hm. Do you have legal version? I think fiddling with data files was added in a patch several days after release. Might be wrong though. Also, this could help:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/content/modmanager/

[Hundred2]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. A major part of this stuff is also credited to Hundy, with whom we spent about three days unraveling the secrets of the Skyrim.

Yup, we were in this TOGETHER.

putmeintheOPedit:thanksbro

Edited February 12, 2012 by Hundred2

[Mr. Darkness]

I must try it out

Edited February 12, 2012 by Mr. Darkness

[EmRA]

Apart from beard and hair (head and body too) having different colors, worked fine:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/EmRAperkele/screenshot/505764350207843723

[Chikennugget1]

I've tried to create a giant chicken boss, I've placed it outside of Whiterun, but that's a pain to set my plugin as active, so after reloading x times the creation kit I could finally set it as active, but once I launch the game the "Data files" is locked, I can't load my plugin.

Helppppp ?

Hm. Do you have legal version? I think fiddling with data files was added in a patch several days after release. Might be wrong though. Also, this could help:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/content/modmanager/

Yeah I have a legal version, I'll check your link out.

[DiscoInferno]

so i made a sweet Draugr follower guy by following all of the steps above to every detail. There is one problem that makes it so i cannot get him into my service, I cannot activate any chat/diolouge with him so i cannot recruit him. Help please.

[Hundred2]

so i made a sweet Draugr follower guy by following all of the steps above to every detail. There is one problem that makes it so i cannot get him into my service, I cannot activate any chat/diolouge with him so i cannot recruit him. Help please.

Draugr don't have the voicelines for following you, you gotta script that (and maybe do some cool voiceacting) yourself, this tutorial uses the standard voicesets for NPC's that have follower dialogue to make them a follower.

[DiscoInferno]

oh, ok thanks. I was wondering why i could not make it work. If I gave it some other voice, say a male nord, would it work?

[Hundred2]

If you can actually manage to get a draugr to use a standard male nord voice, it should work.