Now. My skillsets with modding are a bit specialised. Some people are jacks of all trades, others are more leaning towards certain kinds of modding. I'm primarily a scripter. That means I write programming code. I also do some texture work and dabble in nifskope edits when the need arises. Although the closest thing I know to 3d modelling is using the SCOL function of the GECK.
Now, if you only understood the first half of that paragraph, don't worry. We'll fix that.
1. Modding Terminology:
- Vanilla. A metaphor. Vanilla flavoured ice cream. The basic, if you will. This refers to a game as it is when it's not modded. Used in a sentence: "These vanilla supermutants can be boring to fight now and then."
- Scripter. Someone who knows programming language and writes scripts.
- Scripts. Executable documents of code. Your computer reads these to know what to do. They are also used in games. There are two kinds of scripts: Hardcoded, and... erm... not hardcoded. Not really a word for the latter. Hardcoded scripts are scripts that exist within the compiled engine. We can't alter these scripts. It's usually basic functions. There are workarounds, however. Like the script extender. Which adds new commands similar to the hardcoded functions.
- Compile. This is a script or program that have been checked by the compiler, which is a computer program designed to find errors. This does not mean a script is going to work flawlessly, however. They can still be prone to bugs.
- Bugs. A bug is an event where something doesn't occur as intended. For instance, I want NPC 1 to go through door 1. But instead he goes through door 2. This would be a bug. You'll spend a lot of time fixing bugs, no matter how experienced you are.
- NPCs. Non-playing-characters. Refers to anyone that you can't control with WASD, basically.
- Texture. A texture is a 2d image that you put on a 3d model. To give it the right colours and visual appearance.
- Model. A digital sculpture that creates all 3d elements in a game.
- Gameplay. All things related to non-graphics. How things work in a game.
- Override. This is a function wherein something takes priority over something else. Functionally replacing it. Texture replacements override vanilla textures, for example.
- Template. The opposite of an override. This is something that is used to create a derivative.
- SDK. Source development kit. Software used to edit a game.
- CK. Creation Kit. Synonym with the above.
- Mapping/Levelling. This the process of designing gameplay environments. Like adding trees and rocks to a forest.
- Navmeshing. The latest way in making NPCs able to move on a map or level. It creates an overlaying film over a walkable area, telling the NPC where exactly they can navigate to. Keeps them from walking into walls and such.
As for getting started with Fallout 4 scripting. This can only be done theoretically at this time, since the Fallout 4 GECK hasn't been released. But if you're interested in seeing what it's all about. Visit Skyrim's Creation Kit wiki. The skills will be transferable at least to some extent.
2. Tutorials:
http://www.creationkit.com/Category:Tutorials
I will update this page to contain info on other games as well, and if there are any 3d modellers out there, please, share your knowledge. I'm clueless about that particular skillset.
3. Anatomy of a script For this purpose I will use New Vegas' gamebryo code. Because I have those commands memorised more or less. I'm still learning the Creation Kit code. So here's an example script I wrote. We will first look at it, and then break it down for you to understand.
scn MyScript
ref rSelf Long Apples
Begin Gamemode
set rSelf to GetSelf
if Apples <= 0 rSelf.killactor 1 endif end
So this all might look a bit complicated. But don't worry, here's a line-by-line explanation:
scn MyScript <-- This is your header. scn stands for ScriptName, and MyScript is said name. This is how you name a script.
ref rSelf <-- This is a ref. That means reference. It's a type of object-based variable. We can use these to assign people and things to the script in an algebraic fashion.
Long Apples <-- This is a variable. A variable represents some kind of numerical value that alters itself, meaning it can't just be a number. There are int, long, short and float variables. They all have different purposes.
Begin Gamemode <-- This is a begin block. It tells the game when the script should run. The Gamemode function makes the game execute the script once per frame. There are other begin functions too. Like OnActivate or OnStartCombat.
set rSelf to GetSelf <-- Now the reference represents whatever it is that this script is attached to. Meaning we can put this script on multiple objects without having to change the ref.
if Apples <= 0 <-- This is a condition. Sometimes called a conditional branch. They put up special criteria for when to run a section of code. So that something doesn't always happen. In this case, the condition is that the code will run if the game runs out of "Apples". It's been ages since I read up on scripting terminology. But the <= I believe is called a modifier, and:
< "Lesser than" > "Greater than" <= "Equal to or Lesser than" >= "Equal to or Greater than" == "Equal to" != "Not equal to"
if Apples "equal to or lesser than" 0. In other words.
rSelf.killactor Game 1 <-- Huh. So once the game runs out of the "Apples" variable, it punishes this NPC by making their head explode. How malevolent. rSelf. is how the game picks which actor to explode. Killactor is the command to make the actor explode. 1 represents the body part that should explode. In this case a head. As opposed to, say, an arm. All body parts have their own numbers. Game represents who made it happen so that other NPCs know who to blame for this atrocity. endif <-- This tells the game that the conditional branch ends here. end <-- And this tells the game that the Begin block ends here.
Check out Thumblesteen's Toolbox for a guide on the best third party software for Fallout 4 modding here:
Going to add some tutorials I’ve found that I think would help other beginners like me! A few of these tutorials are for Skyrim, but the same process generally applies (the tools may differ slightly due to being updated for FO4).
Fallout 4 Material Editor – used to edit BGSM and BGEM files, which just about every object in FO4 utilizes. You can check the comments for some tips, but it's real easy to figure out if you know your textures. I will add one tip though-- if you're adding transparency to something like an armor, you have to have Alpha Test on the General tab checkmarked. Found out you have to edit BGSM files by converting them to .json, though I don't know why since editing it directly worked for me. Check Gibbed's program below + Arideya's tutorial. This program is still handy though.
Blender - popular free mesh editor. I've never used it but have been meaning to learn, and Nifskope has a plugin for it.
*Gibbed Tools - convert material files, unpack archives.
Other Tips:
Bodyslide 2/Outfit Studio is your best friend for doing simple edits to armors, even if you’re not converting an armor to a different body.
Study the work of other modders. You shouldn’t rip off their work, of course, only use it as a learning tool—file structure, what filepath goes where, what part of a texture does what, etc. This is generally how I find my way around FO4Edit when adding standalone armors and such.
If you have a problem, try looking in some forums, especially places like the Niftools forum and the comment pages of Nexus mods. And of course, Google is your friend.
That's all I have for now-- if I think of anything else I'll add it. Let me know if anything needs to be changed.
EDIT 2/15/2016 - added the entries marked with a *
Below is a list of useful links to guides/tutorials, resources and tools that I've compiled initially for myself, and recompilled here for everyone. I shall update it once in a while, as I update it for myself. If you want to contribute to this list, you're welcome to do so.
================================================================ The game data uses abbreviations, which can be found in the naming of things, in F4Edit and probably in the creation kit. Here is a small compilation of those I know:
I'll have to say that you did a good job with this.
However, as useful as it would be to include sketchy links for people to avoid. It is against Nexus policy, I believe, to distribute such links all together. I'm just letting you know since I'd hate to see you get in trouble for something you're trying to prevent.
I hope it's OK for me to add my own post here, hopefully some of this will be enough to arm people with just enough knowledge to be able to ask questions! Mind you I'm just a newbie myself, but I thought I'd share the things I've used so far since it's given me enough knowledge on how to do a few simple things and getting them into the game!
Description: I'm sure most of you have heard of this tool by now, but if you haven't it's the tool modders currently use to add things into the game or change things already in the game. It's a very versatile tool that is very, very likely to confuse the crap out of you. It also handles multiple games such as Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, which means it's very easy to find tutorials on how to use it, but very difficult to find a tutorial that applies to your situation in your game. Also most tutorials out there assumes you have some basic knowledge of the tool already and will instead show you how to do more specific things.
That's where FO4Edit/Basic Guide comes in. It'll teach you the very basics, but it's enough to get familiar with the tool and do simple things (I myself used it to figure out how to add some items to the armorsmith extended crafting)
Nifskope lets you view and edit the nif files in Fallout 4. Do note that you need the 2.0 pre-alpha build. 1.2.0 will not work for Fallout 4's nifs, yet it's the version that will come up first when you google. So if you've downloaded this tool and it won't open your nifs you're probably using the wrong version.
I admittedly know less about Nifskope than F04Edit (which just goes to show that you really can know less than nothing about something) but the following tutorial has been enough to make me dare to tinker around with it a little at least.
If nifskope is showing your meshes but not the textures go into Options -> Settings -> Resources and hit Auto Detect Game Paths. You can also add folders yourself etc. But auto detect seems to be enough (at least for me right now). Also make sure that you have textures selected in the Render drop-down menu (should be by default I think).
If you're working on textures, say a body texture, you can leave the mesh open in nifskope and every time you save nifskope will update the texture. This is really helpful for things that stretch, deform, or have a lot of seams on it. Mind you it takes a little bit of tinkering to get this trick to work (generally you seem to need to save into the game's Data/texture folder using the right name, so if you're working on something that's already in there make a backup)
BAE is a simple tool that lets you extract the .ba2 archives, which is where all the games vanilla assets are stored. You'll need it if you want to mod any vanilla assets. No real tutorial needed for this one as it's basically winRAR for Bethesda games. All information you need should be on the mod page.
PS: Only thing not obvious about this tool is that the "File" in the top-left corner is a button, not a menu, hit that to select the file you want to extract. Also I highly recommend extracting to somewhere that ISN'T your game folder cause it WILL overwrite files already present in a folder and it won't ask you if you want to do that or not. I've done that mistake myself, a 2 second mistake had me spending 3 hours removing excess files from my Data folder and reinstalling mods. Don't be me.
TEXTURES Textures is a special beast that I'm learning myself. The first thing to note is that there isn't one single specialized tool for this. To begin with you will need Photoshop or GIMP, and you will need a relatively recent version of it. I myself use Photoshop CC 2014, so I can't help much with GIMP, sorry.
Once you've picked your poison get familiar with it if you haven't already. Try all the tools, all the filters, look up a few tutorials on how to edit photographs, create cool metal effects, or whatever, just get familiar with your program.
I also recommend getting some form of .DDS thumbnail viewer cause Bethesda's naming conventions aren't always the most descriptive things in the world. I myself use SageThumbs, which works very well on windows 8.1 Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sagethumbs/?source=dlp
The first tutorial I recommend you watch is How to edit or modify textures beginner tutorial except the part where he says to not worry about the files with _s and _n, ignore that. You will need all three. Other than that this is a good one for just figuring out how to open a file and save it back into a format the game can handle. link: www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7480/?
anything ending with _d is basically where you'll go to change colors, logos, etc. This is also the file that will have the alpha channel which tells the game what to display.
files ending with _n is basically the file that fakes 3D depth on a 2D surface. I had it explained to me as "if it doesn't effect the countour of a 3D object it's going to be handled by this map". So if you've edited the _d file and still have strange "dents" in your texture ingame you most likely forgot to edit the _n map.
files ending with _s are your specular maps. I'm still trying to master these ones. They're currently not well documented cause Fallout 4 handles them in a new way, so tutorials for older games don't quite apply to Fallout 4. Either way the Specular file is what handles the gloss and brightness of your texture. If you're getting a super-shiny latex effect on something that's supposed to look like fabric you need to edit this file. The darker the color in this file the less shiny it will be.
Now for Specular maps some tutorials will tell you to just slap a solid black layer ontop of it, set it to overlay, and be done with it. I'm not going to say that doesn't work, I've gotten acceptable results with it. But if you look at the files of skilled texture modders and compare their specular maps to vanilla ones you can instantly tell that's not how they do it. So one day I asked someone who seemed to know what he was talking about about it, and he was kind enough to explain it to me.
Basically the different color channels in the _s map does different things. The Green channel is your Gloss, The Red Channel is your specular, and Blue is your ambient occulsion.
From here I will copy-paste what Mr.Dave told me. I haven't tried this yet myself, but it sounds reasonable. (if you try this and it works for you, go drop him a kudos as he's basically the only one who seems to know how this works and was willing to share this bit of knowledge)
Mr.Dave: "You need to copy each channel and paste it into a new image that is RGB 8 bit so they can be edited.
Then you make duplicates of each and change their blending modes to multiply. Merge then edit to what you want it to be. The darker the more matte, the brighter, the more shiny or reflective.
This additional multiply layer is done for each channel to "fix" the bleaching effect caused by the hideous 3Dc format.
Once done with individually editing the RGB channels, you can paste them back into where they belong."
Some of your BB code is a bit off, though. As you can see some tags are visible, and a whole paragraph is wrapped in a hyperlink. Fixing that up would be nice.
Note to self: Stop writing long posts at 3am if you have to do the formatting manually. :p Anyway, fixed the coding, and hopefully in the future I'll be able to add to this when I learn new things (or find new useful tutorials), but at least this has the basics for some of the more common tools. Gives you just enough knowledge to make you dangerous. :p
Well, it looks flawless now, and very extensive. The fact that you're willing to add even more content in the future is a great show of dedication. I'm honoured that you've become part of this.
Getting started with modding. (11 comments)
Now, if you only understood the first half of that paragraph, don't worry. We'll fix that.
1. Modding Terminology:
- Vanilla. A metaphor. Vanilla flavoured ice cream. The basic, if you will. This refers to a game as it is when it's not modded. Used in a sentence: "These vanilla supermutants can be boring to fight now and then."
- Scripter. Someone who knows programming language and writes scripts.
- Scripts. Executable documents of code. Your computer reads these to know what to do. They are also used in games. There are two kinds of scripts: Hardcoded, and... erm... not hardcoded. Not really a word for the latter. Hardcoded scripts are scripts that exist within the compiled engine. We can't alter these scripts. It's usually basic functions. There are workarounds, however. Like the script extender. Which adds new commands similar to the hardcoded functions.
- Compile. This is a script or program that have been checked by the compiler, which is a computer program designed to find errors. This does not mean a script is going to work flawlessly, however. They can still be prone to bugs.
- Bugs. A bug is an event where something doesn't occur as intended. For instance, I want NPC 1 to go through door 1. But instead he goes through door 2. This would be a bug. You'll spend a lot of time fixing bugs, no matter how experienced you are.
- NPCs. Non-playing-characters. Refers to anyone that you can't control with WASD, basically.
- Texture. A texture is a 2d image that you put on a 3d model. To give it the right colours and visual appearance.
- Model. A digital sculpture that creates all 3d elements in a game.
- Gameplay. All things related to non-graphics. How things work in a game.
- Override. This is a function wherein something takes priority over something else. Functionally replacing it. Texture replacements override vanilla textures, for example.
- Template. The opposite of an override. This is something that is used to create a derivative.
- SDK. Source development kit. Software used to edit a game.
- CK. Creation Kit. Synonym with the above.
- Mapping/Levelling. This the process of designing gameplay environments. Like adding trees and rocks to a forest.
- Navmeshing. The latest way in making NPCs able to move on a map or level. It creates an overlaying film over a walkable area, telling the NPC where exactly they can navigate to. Keeps them from walking into walls and such.
As for getting started with Fallout 4 scripting. This can only be done theoretically at this time, since the Fallout 4 GECK hasn't been released. But if you're interested in seeing what it's all about. Visit Skyrim's Creation Kit wiki. The skills will be transferable at least to some extent.
2. Tutorials:
http://www.creationkit.com/Category:Tutorials
I will update this page to contain info on other games as well, and if there are any 3d modellers out there, please, share your knowledge. I'm clueless about that particular skillset.
3. Anatomy of a script
For this purpose I will use New Vegas' gamebryo code. Because I have those commands memorised more or less. I'm still learning the Creation Kit code. So here's an example script I wrote. We will first look at it, and then break it down for you to understand.
So this all might look a bit complicated. But don't worry, here's a line-by-line explanation:
scn MyScript <-- This is your header. scn stands for ScriptName, and MyScript is said name. This is how you name a script.
ref rSelf <-- This is a ref. That means reference. It's a type of object-based variable. We can use these to assign people and things to the script in an algebraic fashion.
Long Apples <-- This is a variable. A variable represents some kind of numerical value that alters itself, meaning it can't just be a number. There are int, long, short and float variables. They all have different purposes.
Begin Gamemode <-- This is a begin block. It tells the game when the script should run. The Gamemode function makes the game execute the script once per frame. There are other begin functions too. Like OnActivate or OnStartCombat.
set rSelf to GetSelf <-- Now the reference represents whatever it is that this script is attached to. Meaning we can put this script on multiple objects without having to change the ref.
if Apples <= 0 <-- This is a condition. Sometimes called a conditional branch. They put up special criteria for when to run a section of code. So that something doesn't always happen. In this case, the condition is that the code will run if the game runs out of "Apples". It's been ages since I read up on scripting terminology. But the <= I believe is called a modifier, and:
< "Lesser than"
> "Greater than"
<= "Equal to or Lesser than"
>= "Equal to or Greater than"
== "Equal to"
!= "Not equal to"
if Apples "equal to or lesser than" 0. In other words.
rSelf.killactor Game 1 <-- Huh. So once the game runs out of the "Apples" variable, it punishes this NPC by making their head explode. How malevolent. rSelf. is how the game picks which actor to explode. Killactor is the command to make the actor explode. 1 represents the body part that should explode. In this case a head. As opposed to, say, an arm. All body parts have their own numbers. Game represents who made it happen so that other NPCs know who to blame for this atrocity.
endif <-- This tells the game that the conditional branch ends here.
end <-- And this tells the game that the Begin block ends here.
Check out Thumblesteen's Toolbox for a guide on the best third party software for Fallout 4 modding here:
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/222/?
used to edit BGSM and BGEM files, which just about every object in FO4 utilizes. You can check the comments for some tips, but it's real easy to figure out if you know your textures. I will add one tip though-- if you're adding transparency to something like an armor, you have to have Alpha Test on the General tab checkmarked.Found out you have to edit BGSM files by converting them to .json, though I don't know why since editing it directly worked for me. Check Gibbed's program below + Arideya's tutorial. This program is still handy though.Last updated: 2016-Feb-24, Edit 3
[[Generic]]
[Standalone Mod]
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4751/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7647/?
Grenade Standalone: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6864/?
Power Armour: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9518/?
[Lists]
Global Variables: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5381/?
Static Object IDs: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9355/?
Settler IDs and faces: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9398/?
Full dialogues and voice files list: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7273/?
Game Settings (not loading, I can reupload if needed): http://hastebin.com/raw/olezeqimagActor values: https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3texxt/heres_a_table_of_actor_values/
[[Console]]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121110915
[Console Menu]
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9298/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9364/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10082/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9972/?
[Batch stuff]
All materials: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9511/?
[[Sound]]
Edit Fallout 4 sound files: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5416/?
Create a new Radio Station: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/274194-tutorial-how-to-create-a-new-radio-station/
SFX Looping: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6670/?#
F4 Music replacer: Fallout 4 Music Replacer
Audio converter: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9322/?
[[Textures]]
Beginner tutorial: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7480/?
Tutorial: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7656/?
Normal and Specular converter: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5498/?
DDS converter: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6712/?
DDS thumbnails viewer: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7489/?
Material Editor: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3635/?
[[Meshes/Models]]
Adding custom meshes: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7957/?
nVidia DDS Tool and NifScope Settings: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6936/?
F4 Morphs Tool: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7665/?
(Can't remember what it is, file is now hidden) http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8374/?[[Scripting]]
F4SE - Fallout 4 Script Extender: http://f4se.silverlock.org/
F4SE Info: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3370945-wipz-fallout-4-script-extender-f4se/
Custom Script Engine - Four Dragon: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5704/?
PexInspector: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7360/?
PapyrusDotNet: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7473/?
[[Specific Stuff]]
[F4Edit]
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2737/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/38413/?
Serialise http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9814/?
Material Swap Mod Tutorial: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9728/?
[FOMOD]
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39434/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6441/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6575/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6821/?
[Body Mods]
CBBE: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7132/?
CBBE: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7106/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7202/?
Bodyslide: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25/?
[Keywords]
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6091/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7259/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7371/?
[Misc]
LOOT: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5310/?
Vanilla Transforms Resource: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9784/?
[[Wikis & Co]]
Nexus Wiki: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Fallout_4
[Specific Articles]
Ressurect Player: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Resurrect_player
On Actor values: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Console_Commands_%28Skyrim%29/ActorValues
[[Outdated/Obsolete in relation to Fallout 4]]
Make your own BSA: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4093/?
[[Misc]]
Settlement Transfer Tool: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8330/?
CCMB: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6325/?
Icon Set: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10080/?
Hardcoded Key Tweaks: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10106/?
[Undefined]
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10112/?
================================================================
The game data uses abbreviations, which can be found in the naming of things, in F4Edit and probably in the creation kit. Here is a small compilation of those I know:
PC = Playable Character
NPC = Non PC
EC = encounter
RE = Random encounter
However, as useful as it would be to include sketchy links for people to avoid. It is against Nexus policy, I believe, to distribute such links all together. I'm just letting you know since I'd hate to see you get in trouble for something you're trying to prevent.
FO4Edit aka TESVEdit aka TES5Edit aka xEdit
Description:
I'm sure most of you have heard of this tool by now, but if you haven't it's the tool modders currently use to add things into the game or change things already in the game. It's a very versatile tool that is very, very likely to confuse the crap out of you. It also handles multiple games such as Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, which means it's very easy to find tutorials on how to use it, but very difficult to find a tutorial that applies to your situation in your game. Also most tutorials out there assumes you have some basic knowledge of the tool already and will instead show you how to do more specific things.
That's where FO4Edit/Basic Guide comes in. It'll teach you the very basics, but it's enough to get familiar with the tool and do simple things (I myself used it to figure out how to add some items to the armorsmith extended crafting)
link: http://fo4.gjnub.com/wiki/FO4Edit/Basic_Guide
Nifskope
Nifskope lets you view and edit the nif files in Fallout 4. Do note that you need the 2.0 pre-alpha build. 1.2.0 will not work for Fallout 4's nifs, yet it's the version that will come up first when you google. So if you've downloaded this tool and it won't open your nifs you're probably using the wrong version.
I admittedly know less about Nifskope than F04Edit (which just goes to show that you really can know less than nothing about something) but the following tutorial has been enough to make me dare to tinker around with it a little at least.
Basic editing in nifskope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRy9rsK-QM
Nifskope tips and tricks:
If nifskope is showing your meshes but not the textures go into Options -> Settings -> Resources and hit Auto Detect Game Paths. You can also add folders yourself etc. But auto detect seems to be enough (at least for me right now). Also make sure that you have textures selected in the Render drop-down menu (should be by default I think).
If you're working on textures, say a body texture, you can leave the mesh open in nifskope and every time you save nifskope will update the texture. This is really helpful for things that stretch, deform, or have a lot of seams on it. Mind you it takes a little bit of tinkering to get this trick to work (generally you seem to need to save into the game's Data/texture folder using the right name, so if you're working on something that's already in there make a backup)
B.A.E aka Bethesda Archive Extractor (if you're not talking about this tool when saying "bae" you're using that word wrong)
BAE is a simple tool that lets you extract the .ba2 archives, which is where all the games vanilla assets are stored. You'll need it if you want to mod any vanilla assets. No real tutorial needed for this one as it's basically winRAR for Bethesda games. All information you need should be on the mod page.
PS: Only thing not obvious about this tool is that the "File" in the top-left corner is a button, not a menu, hit that to select the file you want to extract. Also I highly recommend extracting to somewhere that ISN'T your game folder cause it WILL overwrite files already present in a folder and it won't ask you if you want to do that or not. I've done that mistake myself, a 2 second mistake had me spending 3 hours removing excess files from my Data folder and reinstalling mods. Don't be me.
TEXTURES
Textures is a special beast that I'm learning myself. The first thing to note is that there isn't one single specialized tool for this. To begin with you will need Photoshop or GIMP, and you will need a relatively recent version of it. I myself use Photoshop CC 2014, so I can't help much with GIMP, sorry.
Once you've picked your poison get familiar with it if you haven't already. Try all the tools, all the filters, look up a few tutorials on how to edit photographs, create cool metal effects, or whatever, just get familiar with your program.
Second, you will need either Nvidia Texture Tools for Photoshop (don't worry even if it only goes up to CS6 the plugin works on newer versions too)
link: https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop
or Intel Texture Works Plugin for Photoshop
link: http://gametechdev.github.io/ITW-Beta-Test/
I also recommend getting some form of .DDS thumbnail viewer cause Bethesda's naming conventions aren't always the most descriptive things in the world. I myself use SageThumbs, which works very well on windows 8.1
Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sagethumbs/?source=dlp
The first tutorial I recommend you watch is How to edit or modify textures beginner tutorial except the part where he says to not worry about the files with _s and _n, ignore that. You will need all three. Other than that this is a good one for just figuring out how to open a file and save it back into a format the game can handle.
link: www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7480/?
anything ending with _d is basically where you'll go to change colors, logos, etc. This is also the file that will have the alpha channel which tells the game what to display.
files ending with _n is basically the file that fakes 3D depth on a 2D surface. I had it explained to me as "if it doesn't effect the countour of a 3D object it's going to be handled by this map". So if you've edited the _d file and still have strange "dents" in your texture ingame you most likely forgot to edit the _n map.
files ending with _s are your specular maps. I'm still trying to master these ones. They're currently not well documented cause Fallout 4 handles them in a new way, so tutorials for older games don't quite apply to Fallout 4.
Either way the Specular file is what handles the gloss and brightness of your texture. If you're getting a super-shiny latex effect on something that's supposed to look like fabric you need to edit this file. The darker the color in this file the less shiny it will be.
Now for Specular maps some tutorials will tell you to just slap a solid black layer ontop of it, set it to overlay, and be done with it. I'm not going to say that doesn't work, I've gotten acceptable results with it. But if you look at the files of skilled texture modders and compare their specular maps to vanilla ones you can instantly tell that's not how they do it. So one day I asked someone who seemed to know what he was talking about about it, and he was kind enough to explain it to me.
Basically the different color channels in the _s map does different things. The Green channel is your Gloss, The Red Channel is your specular, and Blue is your ambient occulsion.
From here I will copy-paste what Mr.Dave told me. I haven't tried this yet myself, but it sounds reasonable. (if you try this and it works for you, go drop him a kudos as he's basically the only one who seems to know how this works and was willing to share this bit of knowledge)
Mr.Dave:
"You need to copy each channel and paste it into a new image that is RGB 8 bit so they can be edited.
Then you make duplicates of each and change their blending modes to multiply. Merge then edit to what you want it to be. The darker the more matte, the brighter, the more shiny or reflective.
This additional multiply layer is done for each channel to "fix" the bleaching effect caused by the hideous 3Dc format.
Once done with individually editing the RGB channels, you can paste them back into where they belong."
Some of your BB code is a bit off, though. As you can see some tags are visible, and a whole paragraph is wrapped in a hyperlink. Fixing that up would be nice.
But that's a detail, you did a great job.