Load your.esp file in the Creation Kit Open up windows for the Armor and ArmorAddOn Properties of your new item Below is an example of the Armor and ArmorAddOn properties of a pair of Angel Wings which I want to be able to wear as a completely new body object. For a thorough written explanation of the creation kit please visit.

Now, we will finally begin to work with the Creation Kit to create our own items. Anyone who owns Skyrim already owns the Creation Kit. You simply need to download it through the tools section in your Steam Library. Once you have the Creation Kit installed and launched, you are ready to begin the tutorial.

1. For other uses, see Construction Set. The Creation Kit is Skyrim'smodding kit. Included are the tools needed to create custom content, using the game's files. In an interview with Todd Howard, he expressed extreme interest in what Elder Scrolls fans would do with the kit. He also stated he had hoped to have it released on opening day. Bethesda has released many video tutorials of the creation.
2. Attach the keywords to your armor or clothing. You will need: Something to write things down on; TES5Edit (Optional) The Skyrim Creation Kit (only if not using the Frostfall Warmth Utility) Using the Frostfall Warmth Utility. Mator has developed the Frostfall Warmth Utility for TES5Edit, which will automate much of this process.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a sword.

Step 1: Loading the Skyrim Master File

The easiest way to create your own items is to edit a current item. To do this, we will first load up the Skyrim master file so we can see all the items in the game.

1. Go to File>Data…
2. A new window should open up called “Data.”
3. Double click on the square next to “Skyrim.esm” so that a black “x” appears. See Figure 1.
4. Hit “OK.”
5. After a few moments, a prompt should appear, press “Yes to all.”

Figure 1: Load the Skyrim master file so that we can base our mod off of existing items.

The Creation Kit will freeze up for a few moments as it loads the file.

Step 2: Finding the Item to Edit

Once the Creation Kit has finished loading the master file, your ‘Object Window’ should be now be populated with a huge amount of objects.

1. In your “Object Window”, go to Items>Weapon>WEAPONS.
2. In the “Filter” type in “ironsword”.

Near the bottom of the list, you should see “IronSword”. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Here is where the IronSword object is located.

Step 3: Editing the Item

If you double click on the “IronSword” it will bring up the item’s object window where you can edit nearly every aspect of the weapon. However, for the purposes of this tutorial we will only be concerned with a few of these fields.

• ID: This is the string that the game uses to identify the item in the Creation Kit.
• Name: This is the name of the item as it will appear in-game and in menus.
• Value: This is the base price of the item.
• Weight: This is the base weight of the item.
• Speed: This is the base attack speed of the weapon.
• Damage: This is the base damage of the weapon.
• Crit % Mult: This affects how often the weapon will score a critical strike.
• Crit Dmg: This is how much additional damage the weapon does on a critical strike.

Figure 3 shows the ModSword object window with these fields filled out with my customized stats.

Step 4: Saving our Mod

Once you are satisfied with the stats on your weapon, you are ready to save your new mod.

1. Hit “OK” on the item’s object window.
2. Hit “Yes” on the prompt to create a new form for the item (unless you want to overwrite the existing item).
3. Search for “ModSword” in the “Filter” and our new item should appear.
4. Go to File>Save.
5. Save our mod as “ModSword.esp”.

Now, our mod should show up in our SkyrimData folder as “ModSword.esp”.

Step 5: Loading up our Mod

Now, if we launch the Nexus Mod Manager, our mod should appear in the “Plugins” list. Simply click the check box next to your plugin to ensure that the game will load your mod. See Figure 4.

Figure 4: Our ModSword is now loaded into Skyrim's mod load order.

Finally, you are now ready to launch Skyrim and play with your new item.

In order to obtain your item simply:

1. Load a saved game.
2. Press the tilde (~) key to bring up the console window.
3. Type the following exactly as it appears: help “mod sword” 4
4. Take note of the string of letters and numbers that appears next to the name of our item.
5. Give yourself the item by typing the console command: player.additem <ITEM ID> <NUMBER OF ITEMS>

Figure 5 shows what our weapon looks like in-game.

Figure 5: Our newly created (and overpowered) sword.

Congratulations! You have successfully created your first mod!

If you are an armor or clothing mod author, you can give your users out-of-the-box Warmth and Coverage for your gear by following the steps below.

This works on Frostfall 3.3.1 or newer, and works on every version of Skyrim on every platform, including on the Xbox One, and regardless of whether or not the user is using SkyUI or SKSE. It will “just work” and you only have to do it once, ever. There is also no coding involved. Using Frostfall with your mod will still be optional; it will not make your mod dependent on Frostfall.

The general process is:

1. Do some general housekeeping and make sure you’re using the right default keywords and slots for your gear.
2. Figure out what the protection of each piece of gear should be, selecting from pre-set categories.
3. Create the keywords you need in order to set the protection you want.
4. Inject the keywords using TES5Edit.
5. Attach the keywords to your armor or clothing.

Tools Required

You will need:

• Something to write things down on
• TES5Edit
• (Optional) The Skyrim Creation Kit (only if not using the Frostfall Warmth Utility)

Using the Frostfall Warmth Utility

Mator has developed the Frostfall Warmth Utility for TES5Edit, which will automate much of this process. It also removes the need to use the Creation Kit, you can do everything in TES5Edit.

If you elect to use this, follow steps 1 and 2 below, and then follow these instructions. Otherwise, complete the entire tutorial steps 1 through 5.

About Mod-Added Equipment and Frostfall

Frostfall already allows users to change the Warmth and Coverage of mod-added gear themselves. However, this option gives modders the ability to design default values that your users will automatically get when they equip your armor using Frostfall. The user will still be able to change the values themselves if they don’t like what you have set.

Default Values

By default, Frostfall assigns Fair warmth and Fair coverage to body, head, hands and feet gear that has no pre-set configuration. If that’s all you need, you don’t need to do anything.

Without following the guide below, Frostfall might not assign protection to cloaks on all supported platforms. If you make cloaks, you will need to follow the steps below.

Step 1: Housekeeping

Update.esm

Verify that your plug-in requires Update.esm as a master. If it does not, open your plug-in in the Creation Kit, tick Update.esm as you are loading it, and re-save the plugin.

This is necessary because the keywords we will be injecting will be injected into Update.esm. If you fail to do this, you will receive an error when injecting the keywords.

Equipment Keywords

Next, please ensure that you have given your mod-added equipment the proper vanilla game keywords used by the rest of the game. Frostfall uses these keywords in order to determine what kind of equipment your armor is. And to be honest, your equipment should be using these keywords anyway.

Body Equipment: MUST use the ClothingBody or ArmorCuirass keyword.

Head Equipment: MUST use the ClothingHead or ArmorHelmet keyword.

Hands Equipment: MUST use the ClothingHands or ArmorGauntlets keyword.

Feet Equipment: MUST use the ClothingFeet or ArmorBoots keyword.

Cloaks: There is no vanilla keyword for cloaks, so there is nothing you need to do other than ensure that it won’t be ignored (see Ignored Equipment, below). You will set the warmth and coverage of this gear in the next steps.

Accessories: There is no vanilla keyword for miscellaneous accessories (such as face masks and scarfs), so there is nothing you need to do other than ensure that it won’t be ignored (see Ignored Equipment, below). You will set the warmth and coverage of this gear in the next steps.

Shields: Just make sure to use the ArmorShield keyword, and your shield will automatically grant 0 Warmth and 20 Coverage, like all other shields. This is all you need to do to support shields. That’s it! You’re done!

Slots

Your equipment must also use the appropriate slot based on its type.

Body Equipment: MUST use slot 32 (Body).

Head Equipment: MUST use slot 30 (Head) or 31 (Hair).

Hands Equipment: MUST use slot 33 (Hands).

Feet Equipment: MUST use slot 37 (Feet).

Cloaks: MUST use slot 46.

Shields: MUST use slot 39 (Shield).

Accessories: Can use any slot not reserved by another kind of equipment above.

Ignored Equipment

If your equipment uses the ArmorJewelry keyword, it will be treated as a circlet / ring / amulet and the system will ignore it, regardless of what kind of gear it actually is. The user will not gain any warmth / coverage benefit from this equipment.

If your equipment uses the word “Circlet” in its display name (the name seen in-game), it may be ignored by the PC version of Frostfall when using SKSE.

To prevent your equipment from being ignored incorrectly, make sure to not use this name or keyword.

Step 2: Determine Warmth and Coverage

Warmth and Coverage Overview

Warmth slows down your rate of exposure at all times. Coverage slows down your rate of exposure in severe weather, and slows down how fast you get wet in the rain.

Gear that looks very padded and lined with furs usually has high warmth.

Gear that looks like it’s made of leather, or some other water-repellent material, usually has high coverage.

Gear that is a mix of materials usually has a mix of warmth and coverage, with neither being very high.

Protection for Body, Head, Hands, and Feet Equipment

With a pen and paper, determine what kind of warmth and coverage you would like each of your equipment to have by choosing a category for both warmth and coverage. These categories are:

Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent, Max Warmth

Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent, Max Coverage

Just pick a warmth and coverage category that sounds right for your gear. If you want your gear to have “a lot” of warmth, maybe pick Good or Excellent warmth. If your equipment shows a lot of skin, maybe pick “Poor” warmth and coverage. And so on.

Examples:

Leather Armor has Fair warmth, but Excellent coverage, since it repels rain.

Fur Armor has Excellent warmth (due to the fur), but Poor coverage.

Iron Armor has Poor warmth and Poor coverage.

Below is a table of the exact Warmth and Coverage values that each category grants. I cannot emphasize enough that the exact values are not important to know; all you really need to do is pick a category. But it’s available if you want to take a look.

Protection for Cloaks

With a pen and paper, determine what kind of cloak your cloaks most closely resemble. Your choice will set both the warmth and the coverage. They are:

Cloth Cloak

Leather Cloak

Fur Cloak

Just pick a category that sounds right for your cloak. Fur cloaks have a lot of warmth; leather cloaks have a lot of coverage. Cloth cloaks have a medium amount of both.

Below is a table of the exact Warmth and Coverage values that each category grants. Again, the exact values are not important to know; just pick a category from the 3 listed above.

Skyrim Creation Kit Change Armor Slots

Protection for Accessories

With a pen and paper, determine what kind of accessory your item is. Your choice will set both the warmth and the coverage. They are:

Warm Accessory

Weatherproof Accessory

Just pick a category that sounds right for your accessory. Perhaps a scarf would be a warm accessory, while a face mask would be a weatherproof accessory.

Below is a table of the exact Warmth and Coverage values that each category grants. Again, the exact values are not important to know; just pick a category from the 2 listed above.

Step 3: Create Keywords

If you are using the Frostfall Warmth Utility, stop here and follow these instructions. Otherwise, read on.

Next, you are going to create some keywords in your mod.

By now, you should have a list of all of the categories that your equipment falls under. You will create a new keyword for each of these categories using the CK.

Start by opening the Creation Kit and open your mod plugin file.

Next, in the Object Window, create a new keyword, named:

This is a special keyword that tells Frostfall, “Hey, you should give me protection.” You will attach this to every piece of gear that you want to grant default protection to.

Next, create a new keyword for each of the categories you wrote down. Refer to the list below. You only need to create keywords for the categories you intend to use. You don’t have to create all of them.

After creating the keywords that you need, save your plug-in and close the Creation Kit. Don’t worry about attaching your keywords to your armor yet; you’ll do that later.

Example: I have an armor mod with a single piece of body armor that should have Fair warmth and Good coverage. I create 3 keywords in my mod: FrostfallEnableKeywordProtection, FrostfallWarmthFair, and FrostfallCoverageGood.

Step 4: Inject Keywords

Frostfall uses a technique called keyword injection in order to recognize the keywords you just created.

Open your plug-in in TES5Edit. Navigate to the keywords list.

Next, right-click FrostfallEnableKeywordProtection and select Change FormID. Set its Form ID to 01CC0E28.

After you do this, you should see the FormID update, and in the right pane, the text should read,

If you see this, you’ve done it correctly.

Change the FormIDs of the remaining keyword FormIDs using the table below. They must be these exact FormIDs, or Frostfall will not recognize them.

When you’re finished, exit TES5Edit to save your plug-in.

In our example, our finished keyword injection would look like this:

Step 5: Attach Keywords

We are now ready to attach the new keywords to our armor. Back to the Creation Kit! This is fairly straight-forward; just attach the keywords you created to the armor that it should go on. Make sure to include the FrostfallEnableKeywordProtection on each one.

And that’s it. Save your armor mod and test it in-game. Frostfall should pick it up as expected.

Bonus: Extra Parts

Sometimes, gear has extra pieces attached to it. You can tell Frostfall to recognize these pieces correctly and apply the appropriate protection bonuses.

Body gear: Body gear can have an attached cloak AND / OR an attached piece of head gear. Nightingale Armor is an example of body armor with an attached cloak.

Head gear: Head gear can have an attached cloak.

To note that a piece of body or head gear has an attached cloak, use the FrostfallExtraCloak* keywords, listed in the tables above. Inject them and attach them to your body or head gear.

If your body gear has an attached hood or other head covering, use the FrostfallExtraHead* keywords, listed in the tables above. Inject them and attach them to your body gear.

Bonus: Ignoring Gear

Skyrim Creation Kit Change Armor Slot Machine

If your equipment should be completely ignored by Frostfall, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to attach the ArmorJewelry keyword to your gear, inject and attach the FrostfallIgnore keyword. The gear will then provide no protection.