Lokir's Tomb - Skyrim Mod

Here’s the start of documenting my progress on my Creation Kit practice project - Lokir’s Tomb. This is a long one, because although I’ve been working on it on and off for a while, I hadn’t really been documenting much before this! So hopefully future updates are less bulky and more frequent.

To build this mod, I’m roughly following the Creation Kit tutorial from Bethesda, while adding my own spin on it and adding extra fun things as I go.

Starting Out

I felt like I’d watched the first few tutorials inside out at this point, so after fiddling around with adding little elements and trying them out in game, I jumped into making my own interior space following the first tutorial. The intended layout is reasonably simple; the main challenge here was twofold:

• Learning the controls of the engine; they are similar to Unity but different enough to throw me off for the first 5 minutes

• Working with a kit of objects that is a name lookup system rather than the prefab library of visual assets that I can quickly see and pull out, as in Unity.

Nonetheless, once I knew the naming conventions of the kit, and I had figured out the basic layout and controls in the engine, it was pretty easy to use the modular kit to put together my own version. I started by following the guide (on the right), and then I went through a series of iterations of the basic shell before I was happy to start with adding clutter, debris and individuality to each room.

The layout guide (sans cave) as seen on CreationKit.com

My original rendition of Lokir’s Tomb, roughly following the layout on the Creation Kit wiki, but with a Large Hall in place of one of the rooms (on the right)

On the left here is my first completed attempt at the basic layout. I used the big hall kit instead of the small room kit for the large end chamber, because I wanted to experiment with this type of space as well.

Adding the cave

Next I added the cave section in place of the ending room. The tutorial shows how to use the green cave kit to build a cave, and then go off grid (gasp!) to slot it into the end hall. I also learned how to add rocks and dust piles to the end of the hall to ease the player from one environment to the next.

The layout after adding in the cave section - the tutorial uses a small cave, but I wanted something a bit more meaty

I decided I reeeeally wanted to have water in the cave… This was some effort as I had to rebuild my cave and learn roughly how water works in the engine

Sidetrack 1: Water

Being the ambitious person I am (not helped at all by the sheer mass of different items in the Creation Kit library - it was easy to fall down the rabbit hole of previewing all the different stuff for hours!) for better or worse, I decided I really wanted to have water in my cave. Is this feature creep? Probably, but I was having fun so I wanted to give it a shot.

Originally I wanted to try having an underground pond in the cave, fed by a stream going into the pond and then out of. I studied a lot of different existing dungeons where I knew there was a water feature like this, but it was a bit advanced for my intentions here (read: I bit off more than I could chew!). In the interest of staying on task, I opted to just create a stream through the cave.

I got this done, and in the process, I had to rebuild the cave to suit the water. It still needs more work, but I’m generally happy with how it’s going so far.

Sidetrack 2: Puzzle doors

At this point I discovered the Hall of Stories puzzle door assets, and I really wanted to give them a try. I first had a go assembling it myself (the pieces are reasonably self explanatory), but I needed to learn a bit of visual scripting to get it working. Another tutorial later, I had figured out how to:

• add scripts to my objects

• specify what # icon on each ring would unlock the door

• link all the different working parts of the door up

• link the activation to some particle effects

• create a unique claw object and specify which claw key would unlock the door

Unfortunately, even after doing all this perfectly, my claw door still wasn’t working in game, and after some googling, I worked out that there was a conflict between my doors and another mod I was running in my version of Skyrim. Thankfully, I uninstalled that mod and my door worked! I was very pleased with myself having taken on something a bit higher level than novice and overcome the challenge of setting it up.

At the same time, I hooked up the other basic doors in the level, and the linked the two portcullises with their respective pull chains.

The current layout of Lokir’s Tomb

Creation kit best practices: Lines of sight

Something that’s mentioned in later Kit tutorials is being mindful of render distances within levels. There are a few techniques they mention, but noticing the direct line of sight all the way from the hall entering the catacombs to the puzzle door (which is not great from an LD perspective anyway), I’ve tried to break that up by using some stairs after the catacombs exit portcullis. However, I think I need to raise it by another stair block to properly break that long line of sight.

A caved in wall in the memorial chamber

My very quick Hall of Stories, with a (not so quick) custom Coral claw puzzle door at the end

Context is key

Meanwhile, I had been thinking about the context for my tomb (again, above and beyond the tutorial’s intentions) and what ancient Nords might have used it for. I think originally, these kinds of dungeons within the game prioritised gameplay rather than context, so despite being a Skyrim nerd I don’t think there is too much lore incorporated into creating consistency around how certain spaces would have been used. However, I love to think about the context and use of a space as a starting point for creating something well-grounded in the game world.

With the idea that this was a certain important person’s tomb (Lokir), I decided that there could be different uses for the rooms:

• The entrance hall would be a place for mourners to initially gather

• The secondary hall could be a place where a wake might be held (but ideally I think that should be more of an antechamber than a place where paths converge as it currently is - something to change next time I work on it). This splits into two halls - the main hallway toward the ceremonial chamber and the small hallway, through a portcullis into the catacombs.

• The ceremonial chamber is a large hall with a raised platform on one end that might be a place where mourners gathered for a memorial service

• The catacombs are the burial place for more common Nordic dead. Mourners might enter here to visit loved ones. The portcullis is in place to deter grave robbers… or keep something else in.

• The hall of stories is a preamble indicating that what lies behind the puzzle door is of great sacredness and significance, only to be opened by those who know how (and with the key)

• The winding hallway beyond leads down into a large open cave

• The cave is the inception point of the whole tomb. With a shrine to something perhaps much more ancient than the Nords, the halls leading to the cave were built from the original small tunnel that connected the underground stream cave to the surface. Alternatively, the cave could have been used by a sect of ancient Nords worshipping a particular Daedra, which would explain why the entrance to the cave is locked behind a puzzle door. Possibly, Lokir himself is buried in the cave, closest to the shrine.

With all that in mind, I decided to change the next chamber after the secondary hall into a catacombs hall (which was a good excuse to use a different type of room kit as well). In the future, this could be a place for a few encounters with some Draugr.

Inside the catacombs at the moment

Time for clutter!

Having finally settled on the layout (though I will need to come back to the cave soon), I was itching to get into the “cluttering” step.

The first thing to do was not actually placing clutter, but swapping out sections of walls and halls to their variations within the set in order to break up the tiled look and create variation in each room. This was pretty easy to do once I got the hang of the nice find and replace feature in the engine. I also added some rubble piles to floors to hide the similar textures.

The next thing to do was to start “ruining” my spaces - adding damaged walls, building cave-in's that made sense physically, adding vines, rocks, more rubble piles. This was pretty fun to do, because I got to be off grid and rotating and scaling things to make them work in the space, which is not something I’m generally allowed to do in my day job!

At this point, it’s starting to look like something you might actually see in Skyrim, which is motivating!

What next?

From here, the to-do list is:

• finish off the cave: it’s hard to get a good idea of how it will look in game without testing it in-game, so there are some spaces which are open to the void, and the cave itself generally doesn’t read very well

• clutter! I think I’ll start this by creating a little “prefab library” of things I want to use in a room, and then being able to duplicate them and set them up quickly. I’m excited for this part!

Beyond this, there will be lighting, navmeshing, actor placements and more to be done in the level.