747 replies to this topic

[Jakisthe]

As everyone knows, being a vampire in this game is awful. No fun powers, too big of negatives, the works. So how's this for an improvement? It'll be long, as a heads up....[EDIT: NOW WITH REASONING]

RELEASE!

Pretentious? Perhaps! Gets more people to come here and discuss? Absolutely.

 

Blue for added positive effects
Red for added negative effects
Green for change from a previous spell/non statistical increase.
Yellow for changes to the next stage.
Purple for new spells
Stat changes/multipliers are not cumulative. So at lvl 1, you get +5 to one handed, 2 you get +10 (not +15) etc.

Fledgling
New Good Things:
+5 to one/two handed and sneak

Spoiler

If there's anything consistent among all lore, it's that they're stronger, faster, and quieter than humans. More or less the point of vampirism

+Speed mult 1.05s

Spoiler

see above

+10% time slow on bow zoom

Spoiler

see above

+3 each to illusion, conjuration, and destruction

Spoiler

Now, an important distinction: vampires are NOT blood mages. They don't make blood boil, or blood clones, or anything of the sort. What they CAN do, in terms of magical improvement, is centered around improved ability to conceal (illusion), a better connection with the members of the undead and other planes (conjuration), and general damage (des). Still needs balancing, but no new "blood powered" spells.

+20 to speech

Spoiler

SEE ADDENDUM ON THE BOTTOM

+1.1x health regeneration out of sunlight

Spoiler

As they are hurt by sun, so they are helped by it's absence

+Use of Fus do rah now plays sound file with Transylvanian accent, and says “Fus do bwah!”. Toggleable.

Spoiler

Might just take this out. An easter egg anyway, but I still gotta pay homage to the start of the modern vampires, right?

+10 carrying capacity

Spoiler

Again, stronger physically

New Bad Things:
+20% weaker to silver and fire

Spoiler

A weakness right outta Dracula (although ancient works did point to vague mentions of fire being effective). At any rate, they're flamable, and silver, the "metal of the moon" is too strong for them, as they derive a lot of their being from the moon (from ancient and pre-Draculian texts, anyway)

+Eating garlic drains half of players current health, magicka, and stamina.

Spoiler

Classic, although might be dangerous if the player simply has it in their pocket. Somewhere between an easter egg and gameplay mechanic.

+glare is 1.2 times as bright as normal

Spoiler

This is a delicate one. On one hand, it would being a vampire MUCH more immersive, if it got oddly brighter and you were forced to turn away from the sun just to see..but on the other hand, it is somewhat contingent on unconnected player system settings. Probably keeping it is, but the magnitude is in tweakage mode.

+0.5 health and stamina damage per second when in sunlight. Contingent on light levels. Can still fast travel.

Spoiler

Ah, sun damage. You know, this actually isn't in ANY lore pre-Dracula, which is quite a lot, but regardless, it's a mainstay now. Seek shade, and you will really feel like a vampire.

SPELL: Bite

sneak to enter "bite mode", which allows you to drain blood from someone instead of pickpocketing them (the option to do so would still be there; like the blood collecting quest for septimus). Drains 10% of their health every second, and does nothing else to the person in question. Has same chance of being detected as pickpocketing with a check every second, but otherwise not counted as aggressive unless seen.

Spoiler

Any lore that makes mention of relevancy effects of blood suggests that sooner is better, with a few saying that anything other than a living person is poisonous. Otherwise, why wouldn't a vampire just eat a corpse? Plenty of blood there. But no, this isn't Discworld (the only exception) and they are not vultures. The target must be alive.

TO GO UP A LEVEL: Harvest the blood of 1 person at least halfway, and sleep for 12 hours.

Spoiler

You've got the taste...

Risen
+10 to one/two handed and sneak
+Speed mult 1.2x
+15% time slow on bow zoom
+40% weaker to silver and fire
+5 each to illusion, conjuration, and destruction
+glare is 1.5 times as bright as normal
+10 to speech
+1 health and staminadamage per second when in sunlight
+1.3x health regeneration out of sunlight
+20 to carrying capacity
New Good Things:
+Wolves, bears, saber cats, and skeevers no longer attack

Spoiler

Vampire connection was mentioned in dracula, although that gives them reign over wolves as well. Since there are obviously groups more connected to wolves than vampires, that's there domain. Still, the animals are at least afraid of Dracula, so they back away. Not being attacked by them is representative of this fear.

+Fus do rah now simply plays sound file “Bwah!”

Spoiler

Seriously considering now having this part.

+Sneaking makes no sound.
New Bad Things:
+Cannot swim, simply sinks to the bottom

Spoiler

Contrary to popular belief, this does not break the game. There is no body of water without a sloped exit, and if it's outside, the player could just fast travel anyway. Anyway, this comes from general old school monster rules: no crossing water. Since no crossing is both 1) VERY hard to physically cause and 2) VERY hard to balance for, I went for the easier option.NOTE, however, that you still need to breathe at this point. Hence why vampires avoid moving water in the first place: until they grow stronger, their humanity could tie them to a watery grave.

+No benefits gained from food

Spoiler

The vast majority of lore in all areas makes no mention of food, or if they do, it's only the make a point to it's needlessness.

SPELL: Lightsap

-Can douse a light source when aiming at it.

Spoiler

A utility spell for the vampire. Can set up for escapes, sneaking, magicka recharging, ambiance...point being, there are a lot of uses, and the spreading of darkness is in a lot of lore.

SPELL: Nighteye on self when crouched.

Spoiler

Not so much a spell as an effect, but one which allows for limitless sneaking with a vampires natural connection to the darkness, and doesn't get in the way when not sneaking.

+Bite: Same as lvl 1, but now, if they die to the bite, raises them as an undead for 60 seconds (think of it as a weak thrall)

Spoiler

Thus begins the "make an army of new vampires" that is often the center of many vampire stories. As a new-ish vampire, they're weak and not very lively, but you'll get there!

+Eating garlic drains half of players maximum health, magicka, and stamina.
TO GO UP A LEVEL: Harvest the blood of 4 people at least halfway, and sleep for 12 hours.
TO GET DOWN A LEVEL: Don’t suck anyone’s blood for 2 days.




Master
+15 to one/two handed and sneak
+Speed mult 1.5
+20% time slow on bow zoom
+60% weaker to silver and fire
+15 each to illusion, conjuration, and destruction
+glare is 1.5 times as bright as normal
+negative 10 to speech

Spoiler

Really though, read the bottom addendum for the shift

+2 health and stamina damage per second when in sunlight.
+1.5x health regeneration out of sunlight
+30 carrying capacity
New Good Things:
+All wines in inventory become chocolate milk. No actual effects, but it’s listed as having 15 needed vitamins and minerals.

Spoiler

An easter egg, courtesy of the most powerful vampire of them all.

+Can remain underwater indefinably.

Spoiler

As a master vampire, you have finally gotten past the need for lungs. Goes great with the instant sinking above!

+Very, very rarely, when near walls in houses, the player can hear the tap sequence Di-dah-dah-dit Di-di-dah Di-di-dit Di-di-dit being tapped out on the wall.

Spoiler

Just be sure to be careful with that window!

+Raise dead spell cost is halved.

Spoiler

The closer connection to the death plane makes it a clearer call. Does absolutely nothing else for the raised dead, as again, not blood mages.

+Adds the “LightStep” perk.

Spoiler

No vampire gets caught by traps, and this represents their ability to circumvent defenses. Ever wondered how? Well, blame LightStep!

New Bad Things:
+Having garlic in inventory does 1pt health and stamina damage per close per second.
+Can no longer receive blessings of the divines, and coming within 5 ft of one of the shrines/idols increases the glare amount by a factor of 5x while doing 20 damage a second.

Spoiler

Although less prevalent in new stores, the ancient and draculian-era lore made a big deal of the pain of holy symbols.

+For every % of health lost, maximum possible stamina also decreases by 2. Comes back when health comes back.

Spoiler

Ties strength to blood. Here, I wanted to tie physical power, and not just life, to blood taken in. As said before, they are physically stronger and faster. Why? Well, vampires are all about drinking blood...

SPELL: Command

-Bears, skeevers, cats, and wolves can be given commands like attack or don’t move.

SPELL: Darkfire

-The light taken in by lightsap now restores magicka
-New flame-like ability deals damage, attracts no enemy besides the one it is hitting, does not light up the area, and deals magicka/stamina damage equal to half of the health damage done.

Spoiler

One of two direct damage spells a vampire uniquely gains. This is the channeling of their control of the darkness they bring about. I avoided a lot of these effects since they start to give the vampires a bias towards one style of play, ie, with magic. My point is not to flood them with abilities, it's to give meaningful and interlocking ones the player slowly learns to master.

SPELL: Enthrall

-Adds 20 to speech for 30 seconds.

SPELL: Darken

Cast to have weapons deal fire damage+restore 15 health per hit. No diminished effects against fire-resistant foes. Adds purple flames effect to weapon, akin to conjuring but much darker.

Spoiler

In several instances, vampires are notes to have fought with "weapons of dark flame". That would be this, and the drain bonus comes from the likely bloodsplatter.

SPELL: Telekinesis if they don’t already have it

Spoiler

Dracula seemed to have supernatural control over certain objects, such as a book. Still, I might take this out.

SPELL: Invisibility if they don’t already have it

Spoiler

Apparently, being invisible is part of a TES vampires moveset, so why not.

+Bite: Same as lvl 2, but now "charms" the target iff unseen to begin with so they don't move/notice at all while you feed on them whilst hidden. Basically, takes away the stealth check carried out by the target.

Spoiler

Consider this as the victims now being unable to resist the bite after being bitten.

+Eating garlic now reduces 75% of the maximum health, and takes away all magicka and stamina
+Cannot fast travel during the day

Spoiler

As far as I know, FT is simply condensed transportation, not teleportation. Which is why it takes time. At this level, the vampire doesn't want to spend time outside, and it starts to butt up against the time+light damage thing ever. Point being? You're walking.

+Walking makes no sound.
TO GET DOWN A LEVEL: Don’t harvest anyone’s blood for 2 days. Each day adds +10 to each of the negatives, waiting does not count towards time.
TO GO UP A LEVEL: Harvest the blood of 9 people at least halfway, 1 person all the way(kill), and sleep for 24 hours.



Progenitor
+25 to one/two handed and sneak
+Speed mult 1.75
+25% time slow on bow zoom
+80% weaker to silver and fire
+20 each to illusion, conjuration, and destruction
+glare is 2 times as bright as normal
+Negative 20 to speech
+4 health and stamina damage per second when in sunlight
+2x health regeneration out of sunlight
+40 carrying capacity
New Good Stuff:
+Double cast telekinesis to have summoned weapon mimic your attacks for a minute, does nothing if not a weapon

Spoiler

A holdover from Hellsing and Castlevania, this gives the vampire semi-mystical backup. Also allows for more combat strategies based on their own abilities, instead of just auto attacking themselves.

+Player can "buff" their boots with an ash pile to give water walking for 30 seconds. Such a buff can overlap with existing enchantments. Buffing boots while underwater has no effect.

Spoiler

Again, the old school rules apply: can only cross water with dirt from your grave. Lacking as we are a grave, any special dirt items, I have the players using up vampire ash to gain the ability to cross streams. Sure, they could technically do it before, but this makes it the true means of doing so.

+Double cast “conjure [weapon]” to have it mimic attacks for its normal duration.
Press "E" to interact with wall where tapping sound is coming from to recieve a random quest to a random cave to kill a vampire who automatically drops a human heart and a "Black Armband".

Spoiler

An easter egg wtith a point!

+Halves the recharge on the stop time shout.

Spoiler

Remember how vampires were stated to be super fast? This attempts to account for that, by slowing it down for the player.

+1.5x stamina regeneration while outside at night
+All attacks with axes and swords refill 10 health, critical strikes with maces fills 50. Two handed weapons heal twice as much.

Spoiler

You better believe sword slashes and decapitations causes some serious blood splatter. More of a focus on the thrill of the hunt now to restore their health

+100% immunity to poisons.

Spoiler

TES lore dictates that all but one poisons have no effect on vampires; you've finally shed your humanity to get to that point.

+An item "Black Armband" appears randomly in certain vampire caves which, when worn, removes the player gauntlets and strikes 24 hours off the time needed to go down a level.
New Bad Stuff:
+potions have half their normal effects

Spoiler

See bit about poisons

+No access to restoration tree

Spoiler

Turning your back on humanity, now you must use your monstrosity to propel you in the game. It's holy, which vampires don't do, and it's too convenient of a circumvent around the need to feed.

+No access to assist ally or calm spells.

Spoiler

Old lore has powerful vampires as hideous. So, stands to reason you won't be helping anyone anytime soon.

+0.5x stamina regen while in the sun.
SPELL: Stalker

-For 20 stamina per second, can walk on walls

Spoiler

This is mentioned with shocking frequency in all lore post Dracula. Most likely, it'll force a first person view and treat the wall as just a floor if possible.

-For 30 stamina per second, can walk on ceilings
-Cannot walk over overhangs.

SPELL: Sanguine Form:

-Can kill a bear/skeever/cat to be able to turn into it at the cost of half players maximum health. Lasts until canceled. Kill another such animal to “set” new transformation.

Spoiler

Another one of Draculas more obscure but still important powers; that to turn into any animal at all. You'll notice, no wolves mentioned. Obviously. Also allows the player better sneaking potential.

SPELL: Adds detect life if they don’t already have it

Spoiler

You asked for this, so your augmented ears can now pickup heartbeats! This is the closest approximation.

+Bite: Same as lvl 3, but now raises them as a full blown follower (ie, a normal thrall)
+Lightsap now affects all sources in an area when cast (AoE spell)
+Feeding on a living individual also gains 5% max player mana per second
+Enthrall now adds +50 to speech. People talked to while spell is in use refer to player as Jonathan/Jane Harker.
+Eating garlic is instant death
+Having garlic in ones inventory does 2 damage per clove per second.
+Running makes no sound.
TO GET DOWN A LEVEL: Don’t harvest anyone’s blood for 3 days. Each day adds +10 to each of the negatives, waiting does not count towards time.
TO GO UP A LEVEL: Harvest the blood of 18 people at least halfway, 2 people all the way(kill), and sleep for 24 hours.



Sire
+30 to one/two handed and sneak
+Speed mult 2x
+40% time slow on bow zoom
+100% weaker to silver and fire
+25 each to illusion, conjuration, and destruction
+glare is 3 times as bright as normal
+negative 50 to speech
+3x health regeneration out of sunlight
+7 health and stamina damage per second when in sunlight
+50 carrying capacity
+2x stamina regeneration while outside at night.
New Good Things:
+Can eat human hearts to get 100% of health back, cannot do while enemies are nearby

Spoiler

Hearts contain a lot of blood, and are the source of life for humans, so this becomes the sole exception to the rule: the source. Also finally gives vampires another way to heal.

+Extreme counting ability. Inventory worth values are now listed directly in name of all items.

Spoiler

Because who doesn't want to learn how to count?

+Human corpses are now labeled as "Miserable pile of secrets"

Spoiler

I considered adding a "throw wine glass" attack, but this seemed subtler and more representative of the vampires feeling of superiority

+Automatically turn invisible when immobile for 2 seconds in fog

Spoiler

While no direct mentions are made in lore, people often say that a vampire had "disappeared in the fog". Now you can!

New Bad Things:
+Guards will attack on sight unless wearing some face covering or having Enthrall up

Spoiler

Read addendum

.
+Players can no longer swim, and sink instantly unless they have some ash piles in their inventory (no need to buff).
+Once a day, there is a (5*t+3p)% chance for a group of bounty hunters to seek you down (they’re your level), where t is the number of towns you’ve been in while a stage 5 and p is the amount of friendly people from whom you've drank blood.

Spoiler

At this stage, the people of skyrim have grown wise to the fact that a powerful vampire stalks their land. You're in for some chop.

+Coming within 15 ft of a temple door makes the player glow blue, and adds 1 to the above "t" count.

Spoiler

From the Dark Tower series. Gives players even more incentive to get away from the houses of the holy. Sorry Led.

SPELL: Phasewalk

-For 30 seconds once a day, can walk through walls (NOT floors/ceiling/doors that require keys) as long as there is a space on the other side, it is normally accessible, and requires no load screen to access normally.

Spoiler

Possibly the trickiest ability of all, but none is more telling of their supernaturalism. Plus, one of Draculas trademark abilities. Should help with the hunting.

SPELL: Embrace of Shadow:

-Using all of the players magic, player may invoke Embrace of Shadow, which lets out a large cloud of very dense, very black fog at location, as well as Lightsaping all light sources within 20 ft. For every 10% of their maximum magicka used in casting, the fog lasts another 3 seconds

Spoiler

Creates that fog to disappear into, and the lack of light to do it with. Again, utility, as can be used offensively, defensively, magically, or stealthily.

SPELL: Formus Chiropteras

-Once a day+an additional time at night, can become a vampire bat. Drains 15 magicka per second.

Spoiler

Dracula's most famed transformation, and the one most often mentioned in later works.

SPELL: Rapture

Can cast on those who the player has bitten at least once to gain mind control; allowing them to control the actions of the character as they stumble through a euphoric haze. Only works on non-essential NPCs, drains 10 magicka and stamina per second. Takes half that amount when on NPCs of the opposite gender.

Spoiler

Symbolic of a vampires ability to make people follow their bidding to an extreme amount. Requires tweaking to make it not overpowered and instead a legitimate extension of the vampire and gameplay.

SPELL: Integra

-A backwards powerattack now makes bloody, shadowy spikes burst out from the ground around the player, dealing [destruction rating]+[weapon damage]+[5*p]. Takes 50% of stamina, and any opponents killed with this spell restore 10% of players max health and fills up a soul gem.

Spoiler

All the life that the vampire has fed upon bursts out of them...and takes souls with it if the opportunity arises. From Hellsing.

+Bite:Now turns the target into a thrall follower with a chance of {[(P)^2]100}%, where P=the percentage of health drained expressed as an integer (not a decimal). Assuming this change is triggered, the actual "turn" effect takes place after finishing feeding. Thus, it gives sires a chance to create a thrall without killing, but it scales to 100% exponentially instead of linearly (so you don't accidentally make them left and right while feeding)

Spoiler

You may now: make an army! With some limits, as below.

.
+Enthrall now adds +100 to speech for duration.
+No stamina gain whatsoever in the sun
+Feeding on a living individual also gains 10% max player mana per second
+Telekenesed/conjured weapons now gain the health drain effect from the 4th stage.
+Potions have no effect at all
+Having garlic in inventory is now instant death.
TO GET DOWN TO LEVEL 1: Don’t harvest anyone’s blood for 5 days. Each day adds +10 to each of the negatives, waiting does not count towards time. Alternatively, do a quest+pay a large sum (20000 septims) at a temple of Arkay.


ADDENDUM
Auxiliary Bite and Fear System:
Anyone besides the target (and including the target for lvls 1 and 2) can see the player feeding, which instantly adds 2000 gold to their bounty. What's more, every thrall multiplies your max sneak lvl used in the feed/noticed while feeding check by 0.75, as to mimic the effect of creating a larger and larger army more and more suspicious, as well as increasingly difficult to do stealthily. At 3 followers, no one in the hold (and only the hold where the people came from) sleeps. The stealth minimizing holds true between holds, and however long the thrall is alive (as to not penalize a player who had a massive army, lost it, and wishes to begin anew but very much penalizing someone who travels over the entire world with 10 people in tow).


Issues Commonly Brought Up:
-Older vampires getting weaker in certain ways

Spoiler

This is a gameplay thing, as well as summarizing a lot of older(pre-Dracula) and ancient(pre-BC) lore which capitalized on the vampires having an internal struggle between humanity and monstrosity. If older vampires were merely the most powerful at all times, that would just be...well, over powered. They'd have no reason whatsoever to balance being human or being a monster, and it would gradually make the game less and less interesting as fewer and fewer things need to be taken into account. Suddenly, sun no longer matters, nor does combat...well, that's just not very vampiric, regardless of the vampires age. Sun always matters. Fire and silver are always bad, and the less human they are, the more it hurts. For instance, if a super-vampire is incredibly hurt by sunlight (as is the case in a lot of IRL and TES lore), but a normal person isn't, why would someone closer to a super vampire be hurt less than someone closer to being a human? They are losing their humanity, and at a price.

-Social and Speech Increase and then swift decrease

Spoiler

Most modern (within the last 100 years) has the vampire looking rather good...which is the case when you're just starting out. You're also closer to humanity as a new vampire, so you'd naturally not look as hideous. This is why, in my mod, I have speech increased as a new vampire. As they get older, however, they get more and more grotesque (ie, like older and ancient lore). Now, since that would get annoying, the player is able to cover up their true selves...at the cost of a mental resource, ie, magicka. Such a mental demand is present in nearly ever vampire lore source I've read (except, interestingly enough, the first modern story "The Vampyre", but that's very much an anomaly).
Plus, there is gameplay to consider. We don't want master level vampires being supreme beings, able to conquer every part of the game unequivocally better than humans. They will be incredibly powerful, yes. They will, however, still be vampires, complete with all typical vampiric considerations so it becomes a new element of gameplay as opposed to simply taking challenge out of existing elements.

So thoughts? Clearly, I need to do more balancing+add magicka costs to most spells, but I think it's a LOT more fun than the vanilla vampires...no? Anyway, comments, etc always appreciated.

Spoiler

A Skyrim Vampirism Overhaul Mod by Jakisthe and MofoMojo

Did you ever feel like vampirism in Skyrim is...lacking? That it, pardon the pun, kinda sucks? Well, your experience is about to undergo quite a change. No longer will vampires get the short end of the stick. No longer will they simply be "magic blood mages" with a idiosyncratic blood drinking ability. We didn't think that was right for a game as grand as Skyrim. We looked to change that.

Where other mods either give you unrelated, overpowered, and entirely lore breaking abilities, BSR breaks new ground. Every vampire source from the last 2000 years has been examined to maintain the best possible consistency with real world lore, and the TES scrolls poured over time and time again to mesh it with that of Tamriel. From there, a professionally trained game designer yours truly with years of experience created in depth, tactical, and intritcately interwoven skill and sustenence system to actually afford vampires options...not just giving them mechanically straightforward and overpowered abilities. This framework was then tested over the period of several weeks by dozens of beta testers, all of whom provided feedback, which we took aaannnnd...well. You see the result. A vampire mod to truly give them the place they deserve in the desolate north but distinct and useful. No, our vampires are a whole other being altogether. Man or monster, well, I can't clarify that much, since it is up to you. After all, what is a man? But enough talk..!

NEWEST UPDATE: Update 1.1 contains just the main file and a /scripts update. It should resolve the combat and sneak feed problems for those experiencing it. Please install the update OVER 1.0.

Planned Changes: The features which we already have lots of design documents and ideas for, but weren't able to make the first release. We're only including stuff which I've made signifigant design headway on for the sake of sanity.
-Dynamic fear system based on feeds and attentiveness in a hold
-True siring, aka, making your own vampire army which actually acts like vampires as opposed to in name only
-Faction quests for the different clans
-A certain location to fight for
-Constant bug fixes. Obviously.

IMPORTANT!
Please read the included documentation for installation procedures, uninstallation, and deeper notes about the systems and spells. There are, however, some last minute changes that did not make it into the documentation, or were updated. Future revisions will include those changes.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE backup your save game. The scripting in this mod is extensive. Additionally, you MUST uninstall the mod via the uninstallation steps in the documentation once you've become a Belua Sanguinare Vampire.

Setting the Sun Whilst Setting the Stage*: General Changes In BSR

First things first. In Belua Sanguinare, there are five levels or ranks, as opposed to the typical four from vanilla.from vanilla.
* Fledgling
* Risen
* Master
* Progenitor
* Sire
Doesn't seem to be that different, but hang tight! Each level will grant new passive abilities, spells, powers and weaknesses but some things are shared between them all. More specifically, those general differences being:

Resistance to Disease
As a Vampire you are fully resistant to disease.

Weakness to Sunlight
In all stages of Vampirism you will possess a weakness to direct sunlight. Within the sunlight you will not regenerate Health, Stamina, or Magicka and you will take varying amounts of damage per second. These values DO NOT SCALE with your Player Level, only your Vampire Level. At the highest level of Vampirism you will take a larger amount of damage in direct sunlight

Trespassing
Vampires are mysteriously stricken with pain and suffering while forcing themselves into private locations. If you are trespassing you will take health damage at the same degree as you would with direct sunlight damage. As players are required to feed, you should think twice about trying to feed from victims that are in locations that you may consider having to trespass.

Weakness to Garlic
The common folk are very a superstitious lot, but they have good reasons to put their faith in lore. If they are carrying garlic, this can interfere with certain vampiric abilities you may have and you cannot feed from anyone carrying garlic.

Weakness to Silver
As a vampire, you will have a greater weakness to silver weapons that will become amplified as your rank increases.

Weakness to Fire
Similar to Garlic and Silver, vampires are less resistant to fire than normal. Don't assume that Dunmer Blood will provide any protection.

Shrines
Shrines of the Nine can be deadly to the Belua Sanguinare Vampire. As you approach a shrine you will be blinded by it's holy aura and begin to take damage relative to your proximity and Vampire Rank. In other words, get out of the Solitude temple!

Hunger and Satiation
As a vampire, you have a requirement for blood that must be satiated. If your satiation level gets too low you be warned by "Sangue Senso" being forced upon you. There is only one type of source that will provide the blood you need and those are living breathing victims.

There are six levels of Satiation
* Nomal or Satiated - Level 5 Satiation
* Unsatiated – Level 4 Satiation
* Hungry – Level 3
* Famished – Level 2
* Ravenous – Level 1
* Starved/Starving – Level 0

By default, your level of satiation drops a small bit every hour in the game and various strengths, bonuses, and weaknesses are applied at each stage.

The degree to which you can hide your true nature from others may vary depending on your vampire level and your level of satiation. If you allow your satiation to drop too much, you will be revealed and may be attacked on sight by guards and certain other citizens. Of course, that's not to say there isn't certain benefits to being a starving aberration...

Harvesting Hearts
At the early onset of the game, harvesting hearts from fresh victims is not such a necessity, however it becomes a primary source of healing and restoring magicka and stamina as Potions will no longer work and Restoration Spells become less effective on yourself as you grow through your levels of Vampirism.

Vampire Feeding
Feeding is your only source of satiation and will harm your victim depending on how hungry you are. If you feed upon someone, you will regain a certain level of Satiation back. Be aware, that feeding on a victim will typically do a percentage of damage equal to how hungry you are. You can kill by feeding too much.

There are three times you have the opportunity to feed each with varying levels of effectiveness.

* Sleeping Victims: Feeding from sleeping victims currently works very similar to vanilla vampirism. For that classic taste.
* In Combat: In combat, if your combatant begins to bleed out, falling to their knees, you can approach and activate them. Doing so will provide you the opportunity to Feed, making a right bloody mess of things.
* Sneaking upon a Victim: If you sneak upon a victim and activate them you will be given two choices. Sneak Feed and Pickpocket. You will only be given the Sneak Feed option if you are NOT detected by the individual you are sneaking up on. Others may still see you. Thieving types, this one's for you.

Carrying Capacity
As you raise in the ranks of Vampirism you will be stronger, and thus able to carry additional load that others could not.

Attack and Block Effectiveness
Your vampiric strength will also provide increased effectiveness in damage done by melee and weapon attacks as well as blocking effectiveness.

Vampiric Sprint
Vampires can sprint at faster speeds than others. The speed at which you can sprint will vary based on whether you are indoors or outdoors.

Healing Rates
Depending on which rank you are, and having less effective restoration spells, potions, and even food, your healing rates both out of combat and in combat are improved and get better at each rank.



Rank Power: My Continued Insistence on Terrible Puns and What They Mean as You Rise in Vampirism

Of course, we couldn't stop there. With over two millenia of vampiric abilities for us to sift through, it would be folly not to offer at least some of them to the player! Nope, we have a whole suite planned out for you. Hopefully, they'll meet the macro-level, tactical, and mechanically interesting level that our testers swore to us that they would. Let's have a look, shall we?

===Fledgling Vampires===
You've contracted some kind of degenerative disease. At least...the healers all claimed it was degenerative...

Dark Sacrifice
Should a victim die and be reanimated after feeding, you can use Dark Sacrifice to kill the reanimated corpse and consume a portion of its health, magicka, and stamina. Tasty! Or...uh..so I'm told.

Drain Lifeforce
This will allow you to drain the lifeforce from others, doing 10 damage per second.

Sumo Mortalis Forma
For Fledgling and Risens, Sumo Mortalis Forma is a dual purpose spell. It alters your outward appearance so that you appear to others as you did before you were turned. It drains magicka at a fairly slow rate except when hungered. When you are hungered, the drain on magicka is more severe.

===Risen Vampires===
That was no ordinary affliction. You can feel your humanity slipping away, but as it spills out, it's replaced with...

Dark Gift
You can use this spell to consume a portion of your health upfront for three times the return over a period of ten seconds. Be wary as this consumes satiation in order to provide you with such a boon. The amount of health consumed and rewarded is dependent upon your stage of vampirism.

Vampiric Command (Animal)
Risens are giving Vampiric Command (Animal) which allows them to command up to three Skeevers.

Sangue Senso
You can detect the blood of the living within 150 feet. This consumes no magicka and can be turned on and off

Immortui et Morte Senso
You can detect both the dead and undead within 150 feet. This consumes no magicka and can be turned on and off

Vampire's Sight
Risens gain access to Vampire's Sight, the ability to see well in darkness. The sight improvement is much better at night and provides the ability to toggle off or on permanently.

Sense Garlic
Risen's gain the ability to sense the presence of Garlic in possession by others.

Vampiric Evasion
This is a latent power of vampires which allows them to detect certain attacks and with a quick exertion of speed, avoid the attack if they are quick to move from harm's way.

Breath of Frost
The Breath of Frost shout is just that, a voice shout very similar to “Frost Breath”. It creates a wall of frost and temporarily slows and paralyzes those caught in it.

Vampires Speed
Vampires Speed is a power that increases your speed, but rather than just increase it to uncontrollable levels it slows time down at the cost of draining stamina. Once your stamina is depleted it will stop being effective. This power can be toggled.

===Master Vampires===
Vampirism. That's what it is. Having embraced that fact, you have cast aside your mortal coil for one which is, if not springier, one at least a lot more versatile.

Vampire's Kiss
Vampire's kiss provides a way to charm an individual, forcing them to find the nearest bed and sleep. If you are trespassing and can charm the owner of the location you are in, the owner will no longer consider you as trespassing while under the effects. If the location is owned by a faction, you merely need to charm a member of that faction. Hot.

Sumo Mortalis Forma
Additionally serves to enthrall others by providing an increase in speech that counters your speech weakness.

Breathless
You may stay submerged under water indefinitely.

Slow Fall
Slow fall is a channeled spell that can be used to slow the rate of descent when falling.

Vampire's Light Foot
As a Master, your feet can move quickly and with little effort. Also great at dances.

Ianuae Magicae
You gain the ability to teleport small distances up to 50 feet.

Spectralem Arma
You may summon an Etheral Axe to follow and serve you. It cannot be commanded but will attempt to protect and engage enemies.

Lumen Extinguere
With this power you can extinguish flames from sconces and carried torches. Doing so will also restore a bit of magicka. The amount restored depends greatly on your vampirism stage.

Darken
Using magicka you summon the powers of darkness to envelop you and your weapons. As you attack with them, you will deal extra damage and absorb that amount in health.

Blood Rend
Blood Rend is a Cloak Like spell which will rend the lifeforce/blood from victims within a certain radius, transferring their health to you.

===Progenitor===
So this is power, hmm?

Ianuae Magicae
You can now teleport approximately 150 feet away.

Vocare Caligo
This is a Power and as such can only be used once a day. It will alter weather allowing you to turn a bright and sunny day into a foggy, overcast one. It does not last forever, so use wisely.

Subvolo
While slow fall provided the ability to slow your descent, channeling your powers will allow you to levitate for a short time.

Dual Cast Perk
Currently only employed for Spectralem Arma. This perk allows you to dual cast certain vampiric spells if you do not already contain the Dual Cast perk for the schools that they belong to.

===Sire===
No, this is power. You can see why vampires were once so feared...and that fear will make a return.

New Command
Sire's can command up to three of any combination of Sabrecat, Bear, Wolves, or Skeevers. None will attack the player unless directly provoked (attacked).

Ianuae Magicae
You can now teleport 300 feet away

Vocare Tempestat
Similar to the ability Vocare Caligo, this allows the Sire to also conjure a storm, providing twice as much available protection from sunlight.

Quasi Caligo
Outdoors, the Sire is able to transform themselves into a mist and fly around. They cannot do so if they are IN combat, but once in Mist form they will only turn back if they run out of magicka, get caught in direct sunlight or switch the power off (use power again).

What Is a Man: Progression and Regression in BSR
Naturally, we were also on the lookout for players to be able to make a choice. Which way will you go? Depraved soul, desperate for redemption but unable to fully give up that delicious, delicious power? Will you steal men's souls and makes them your slaves? Or will you be the only one left? Either way, that bloody path is never set in stone. This is accomplished through a dynamic and natural progression and regression system.

Progression and Regression through each of the levels requires certain conditions that must be met.Besides being noted in the incredibly helpful journal you receive, those conditions are:

FeedCount: Feed count represents how many times you've fed in a given level and how many times you must feed in order to progress to the next stage of vampirism.

SatiationDamage: Satiation Damage represents a total percentage of damage you have done to your victims when feeding on them.

SatiationKills: Satiation Kills represent how many people you need to kill or have killed by feeding, to progress to the next level.

Starvation: Starvation is the only means by which you can regress levels. You are considered to be starving when your Satiation Level is 0. In order to regress, you must starve yourself for a certain number of days.

Sleep: Sleep is the primary means to trigger a progression or regression once the other appropriate conditions have been met.

The Vampire's Journal
The aforementioned Vampire's Journal is added to your inventory on becoming a Belua Sanguinare Vampire. It is primarily used to track your progress through each of the stages, know your satiation level, how close you are to starving and to know what is required of you to get to the next stage.


Painting in Black: Making The BSR Skyrim Your Own

Belua Sanguinare can be modified to suit your personal tastes in progression. Do you think it's too easy to progress? Do you want to disable the ability to REGRESS altogether or do you simply want to cheat your way to the top? Disable Attack on Sight or enable Attack on Sight ALL THE TIME?

Well, I can't tell you! At least, not here. That's what the [much more in depth] release document is for! There are ways to alter juuuust about everything, so take a look.


Our True Masters: Why BSR Is More Than Just a Guy-Girl Team With Too Much Time On Their Collective Hands
A big thanks to our active supporters on the Nexus Forums. Your continued input, constructive feedback and suggestions have kept us progressing forward and allowed us to shape the mod in a way that fits our vision.
* ElricShan
* Darksun45230
* WiseMan999
* Leeira
* Deama
* Phil11
* Yota71
* FranzLiszt
* Nskin039

And another thanks to those that helped us with some questions or quandaries along the way:
* RedWood Elf – assistance with scripting
* RandoomNoob – assistance with scripting
* Draeka – assistance with scripting/flying discussion
* Theru – Asistance with animations (not yet used)

Thank you to our beta testers that helped put the mod through its paces for a few weeks and reported back findings to us:
* nskin039
* Darksun45230
* Krem
* Lyre2r14
* sed124
* FranzLiszt
* eVo1994
* chow404
* sillivanilli1
* LonerFO
Special thanks nskin039, who continued to provide a wealth of feedback, grammatical corrections, and overall polish suggestions after the beta and prior to our initial release. And you, of course! Both for playing this mod, and the equally impressive feat of getting this far down in the description.

Visit us in the official forum discussion for feedback and to hang with the rest of the support cast!

*Sorry for the awful wordplay.

...The night is still young...

[/center]

Edited by Jakisthe, 22 May 2012 - 09:50 PM.

[Jakisthe]

Suggestion? I'm planning a similar turnaround for werewolves to make them "balanced", as it were.

[MofoMojo]

Figured I'd re-use this original post to showcase our Teaser videos. We're limited to two videos per post so please visit my youtube channel to check out the others!

Teaser 2 - Show Off Effects


Teaser 3 - Game Play


Please check out the my youtube channel for all the other POC work and videos.

-MM




======================== ORIGINAL POST ========================

Suggestion? I'm planning a similar turnaround for werewolves to make them "balanced", as it were.

Man I thought I replied to this.

Like you I don't like the way Vampires work in Skyrim, and they took queues from their Oblivion implementation as well with a similar "Go without feeding and you become MORE powerful but MORE hated" approach. I like the idea of some level of progression to power THROUGH some means, whether it's like your idea with feeding, or whether it's some other route rather than starving yourself.

My approach will be a little different depending on the complexity of its implementation once the CK is out. I plan to make a Vampirism skill and associate all vampiric abilities with that skill so that the more you use your powers your skill will increase and as your skill increases you open up new powers. This way you don't have immediate access to all of your abilities. You'll actually have to work at becoming a "Master Vampire".

From a feeding perspective, starving yourself will cause the skill to go down, but I also plan to track how long it's been since you last fed and add certain, frenzy like, abilities when you are starved. For instance, I don't think vampires should be KOS at stage 4 in the current Bethesda implementation when you've starved yourself for four days, but I plan to keep it that way in my implementation because I think as you've starved yourself you SHOULD lose the ability to "hide" that you're a vampire from others. Starving should also disable certain abilities/spells.

To get back on track with your request for suggestions....

Fledlings:

+1.1x health regeneration out of sunlight - I like this idea and plan to implement something similar, my goal however is to require the player to have previously fed. To me it's the idea that feeding fills up a type of "Life Force" meter from which Vampire's use, similar to magicka, to use their powers

+20% weaker to silver and fire - Is this on top of the already implemented weakness to fire? If not, I think Fledglings should be +100% weaker to fire. I'm on the fence with Silver. From a balance perspective I like the idea that vampires are weak to flame/sun and that werewolves are weak to silver. There's a LOT of vampire lore to pull from though, and some suggests that it's not "Silver Crosses" that vampires fear, but the silver itself. From a metaphysical aspect, there are other reasons that Silver could be detrimental to Vampires depending on schools of thought.

+Eating garlic drains half of players current health, magicka, and stamina. - I like this idea, in fact from an alternate approach you should be able to make a "Garlic Extract" potion that could be applied to weapons as a poison and use this against vampires. I'm not sure if 50% of their health, magicka, and stamina is too much or not. For a fledgling, probably about right but I don't think vampires, when fought by the player, should be equally penalized otherwise it might prove too easy to kill one.

+0.5 health and stamina damage per second when in sunlight. Can still fast travel. - I like this idea, and plan to implement similar. I've got the groundwork to change even just the sunlight implementation so that it takes into account what the actual lightlevel is on the player if they are outside. I plan to have damage scale to the light level of the player when they are outside and in the sun, so that shade can protect you more than direct sunlight. The only caveat is that magelight and candlelight spells can alter this value and I'm not sure how to work around that, or if it's needed.

I'm not sure I like the idea of the "Fus do rah" change. A bit corny, to me, but that might be what you're after there! Vampire's shouldn't get a transylvanian accent if they were previously Nordic. I have a set of dental acrylic vampire teeth and while the first couple of times I wore them caused me to talk with a lisp, I eventually overcame it and now it's barely noticeable when they're in, but that still didn't translate to the ... dracula originated ... accent.

OK...I need to stop now. I'll get back to you on the other levels later...

Edited by MofoMojo, 23 March 2012 - 04:41 PM.

[Jakisthe]

I wasn't too sure about making it all based around a brand new resource like blood power...I've designed characters for other games that had systems like that, but I can't see it fitting into Skyrim. I mean, it's a land of lots of magic...so the vampires had to have some of their mysticism from the really old lore...but also one of a tough heartiness, so stamina was still in it for me. I am still wondering how to balance the starve/power/hate stuff, but clearly this is a starting work.

Thanks for the suggestions though! Some relevant comments on them:
-The +20 weaker to fire and silver is just that; +20% weaker. I don't know if players are innately "weak" to fire, but they take 1.2x times as much damage from fire/silver as normal. As far as the older=more damage is concerned, a Fledgling is still somewhat human...not as powerful, yes, but not as weak to vampire specific things either. Plus, if you grew stronger vs fire there'd be less incentive to go back down.

-Same thing as the fire for the garlic. A human isn't hurt by them, but vampires are, so the more vampiric the player gets, the more damage. As it is now, it's more of an "easter egg" of sorts, since not many people eat garlic. You'd think to yourself "I'm a vampire now...I wonder if garlic hurts me?" to which the answer is...yes!

-Well, lightlevel brings in a whole issue of how much gradient of a health loss I'd want to have for each stage v each level, which might be more complex than people want. As it is now planned though, if you can see the sun, you take the damage.

-Fus ro bwah is indeed an easter egg . I have a lot of those...

[PuppetSin]

How bout a nifty little quest to help improve speechcraft a legit way such as having to be invited into a home (like traditional vampire tales) or else you can't enter the house at all? Just a fun little idea

[MofoMojo]

How bout a nifty little quest to help improve speechcraft a legit way such as having to be invited into a home (like traditional vampire tales) or else you can't enter the house at all? Just a fun little idea

Oh man, that would actually be... kind of cool, and frustrating, and probably VERY time consuming to mod.

Hey Jakisthe,
In regards to the comments on the suggestions, I see what you're doing there now. I didn't really focus on the other couple of levels due to some time constraints I was under and didn't want to hit you with a wall of text but I see where you're going. Essentially the weakness to certain elements, fire, garlic, silver, become greater the more vampiric you become as opposed to the more capable to withstand them. Come to think of it, I've seen it handled both ways in various lores.

In regards to sun/shadow damage:
I'm thinking of sun damage being a base value and then the lightlevel applies a percentage with 100% being the maximum percentage applied (because you have have more than 100% light level if I remember my GetLightLevel tests properly). So for instance, say you have this for fledling:

.5 damage per second in light.

If you're standing in the shadow of a house, the light level (I tested outside of an Inn in the Skyrim worldspace, not in Whiterun or anything) was 35. In this case instead of .5 dps you'd take 35% of .5, or .175 dps.

As a sire you mentioned 3x damage. I assume that's 3x of your .5 base or 1.5 per second. In my shade test, you'd take .5, but moving out into the open I think the light level was 95 so you'd take 1.425 per second.

I think the dynamic damage could be pretty fun to play with. Think about being closed to death, looking for a place with shade to hunker down and hope you can survive until night fall and not get attacked. There are lots of overhanging rocks, patches of trees and archectural structures that cast shade outside and I *think* it will be easy to implement if I can get write a proper script to get the player lightlevel that either SkyEdit will use, or the CK once it's release.

I need to read up on your other levels.

Really enjoying seeing everyone's ideas on this.

-MM

Edited by MofoMojo, 13 January 2012 - 03:09 AM.

[Jakisthe]

Yeah, as close as I like sticking to vampire lore, the house part would be too difficult, too potentially game-breaking (in the bad way) and just not very fun :/. I feel like I was pushing it far enough with the river thing. I guess I could have people always be angry when you enter their house (as though trespassing) no matter the time unless they, say, have the key to the house, but then that still might not work.

That's a very interesting idea...I liked the round numbers since it would be easier to work with, but I guess since it happens over time then it wouldn't be too bad. Also, a clarification: you take 3 points of health damage as a Sire, not 3*0.5
Shoulda made that clearer, sorry...But yes, that whole shade aspect would be immensely fun, thinking about that scenario you presented. I do wonder, however, if there is a way to distinguish between natural light and torches/candles/whatnot...since it's apparently the UV that hurts vampires, not simply being visible. As I can tell...they're considered the same, right? Although I suppose I could just have the lightlevel modifier be turned off when you entered a building, but..that just adds another layer of complication.

Anyone else have thoughts? Too many passive changes? Suggestions?

[MofoMojo]

Yeah, as close as I like sticking to vampire lore, the house part would be too difficult, too potentially game-breaking (in the bad way) and just not very fun :/. I feel like I was pushing it far enough with the river thing. I guess I could have people always be angry when you enter their house (as though trespassing) no matter the time unless they, say, have the key to the house, but then that still might not work.

That's a very interesting idea...I liked the round numbers since it would be easier to work with, but I guess since it happens over time then it wouldn't be too bad. Also, a clarification: you take 3 points of health damage as a Sire, not 3*0.5
Shoulda made that clearer, sorry...But yes, that whole shade aspect would be immensely fun, thinking about that scenario you presented. I do wonder, however, if there is a way to distinguish between natural light and torches/candles/whatnot...since it's apparently the UV that hurts vampires, not simply being visible. As I can tell...they're considered the same, right? Although I suppose I could just have the lightlevel modifier be turned off when you entered a building, but..that just adds another layer of complication.

Anyone else have thoughts? Too many passive changes? Suggestions?

Hey! Before the drugs kick in from my surgery... lol.

GetLightLevel just returns a light level that is applied. To ensure the proper effects are applied I'm just doing the following conditions:

Function Param1 Param 2 op Value
GetInWorldSpace Sovngarde 0x00000000 == 0
GetGlobalValue GameHour 0x00000000 <= 19
GetGlobalValue GameHour 0x00000000 >= 4
IsInInterior 0x00000000 0x00000000 == 0
GetLightLevel 0x00000000 0x00000000 > = 120

I need to work a little more on the proper light level.

This is really only one additional condition applied to the previous conditions, but just ensures the player is NOT in an interior, and the hours are between 5am and 7pm game time, and the light level is greater than or equal to 120 before it applies the effect. Of course, the problem is that spells such as MageLight, Candlelight, and Flame increase the surrounding light level, so if you're outside and in the shade, or it's overcast, you may not be taking damage, but if someone casts those spells (or you do) then it's possible that you'll increase the light level > 120 and the affects of the effect will kick in. I doubt people will be casting MageLight or Candlelight during the day, so not much of a worry, but Flame and others may cause the effect to be applied off and on. I'd like to remove that kink but in the long run over the effect being applied ALL The time, or variable based on the light level and being outside in the sun, I'll take variable.

On to some suggestions:

Risen: (some of these apply as a whole)

Increase to skills:
I think one/two/sneak/block/unarmed should all be increased appropriately. The idea for everything but sneak is that the vampire is stronger. His attacks, and his blocks should be properly fortified. I am doing this in my current work as well. Love it!

Speed increases:
I like the speed multiplier but any chance this could be.... spell/toggle based? There are times where I actually won't to walk slower than I actuall can walk and being put into a situation where I have no control over my speed might be frustrating, but I definitely think a speed increase (or capacity to do it) is warranted.

Time Slowness:
I like the time slow on the bow zoom idea. Actually it would be interesting to, in a similar fashion as speed increase, perhaps be able to slow time (similar to the shout) at each of the levels for a limited time.

Glare:
Glare might be too much at times. A lot of people use realistic lighting and some other effects that actually brighten up the days (although darkening the nights). Adding increase glare may be visually unappealing.

Damage in Sunlight:
Completely agree here.

Carrying Capacity:
I think a fledling should be just about as strong as his original self, so perhaps leave carrying capacity alone on the fledgling and then start off with +10 for the Risen?

Wildlife:
In Dracula's lore he had some element of control over wolves. I think adding bears and saber cats to the list at such an early stage is more than a Risen should get. Perhaps add those to a future stage, and leave Wolves and Skeevers

Swimming:
I personally like the idea of implementing the ability to not be able to cross water, but I wouldn't do it. You're suggesting sinking, but I think if you disabled the ability to swim the player could put themselves into a situation where they couldn't get out of the water. Speaking to that... Since they are UNDEAD, they have no use for breathing and all levels should be able to be in the water indefinitely.

Food:
Great idea! Food should give NO benefit to a vampire.

Bite:
I think it was either mentioned here or in another thread (I'm very lazy right now...drugs kicking in) but Vampire lore traditionally stays away from biting corpses. My take on this is that blood is the carrier of the lifeforce throughout the body, but once the individual is dead, while blood still exists in the body, the lifeforce is gone. I know in some lore/fiction that drinking from the dead is like a poison to a vampire. Personally I think drinking from the dead should just simply serve no purpose, much like eating food.

Garlic:
Love the idea! I know you think of them as easter eggs, but I love it.

Master:

Speech:
So as a Risen they are +10 to speech but in Master you start going backwards. I think the more powerful they are the more speechcraft they should have, but I imagine this goes inline with your thoughts on weaknesses at higher levels? Perhaps they look more.... unappealing at higher levels and thus lack speech? I think of their speech as a magical effect they can have on people. Dracula was able to ensnare control/influence the harkers and many other people, except those of strong will.

Wines becoming chocolate milk and tapping sounds? Explain this!

Gotta run for now...sleepy.

-MM

[MofoMojo]

Swimming:
I personally like the idea of implementing the ability to not be able to cross water, but I wouldn't do it. You're suggesting sinking, but I think if you disabled the ability to swim the player could put themselves into a situation where they couldn't get out of the water. Speaking to that... Since they are UNDEAD, they have no use for breathing and all levels should be able to be in the water indefinitely.

Alternatively, what if the water simply repelled you and you could ONLY walk on water? There's a water walking MGEF already built into the game. If we added that as an ability I wonder if that would keep you from entering into the water.

-MM

Edit: Alas, I cannot get it to work. I have gotten water breathing added into mine however...

Edited by MofoMojo, 18 January 2012 - 04:13 AM.

[Jakisthe]

As you've gleaned, what we have now doesn't really allow for convenient light damage, what with the possible magic light sources and lack of fast travel...I was going to remove the light emitting property of my Darklight spell, but I don't know if that's possible. Also, as far as I'm talking about what's possible: have mod made teleportation spells ever worked? That's certainly a possibility, no?

The other stuff:

-Skill increases: I wonder how I should do the growth. Linear is obviously easiest, but I feel like vampires don't grow in a linear fashion. Logarithmically? Exponentially? I think exponentially, but it would require some tuning.

-Speed increases: Hmm. Good point. Isn't there a walk button though? Regardless, I could always apply the speed change to sprinting, and keep general movement speed the same. Actually, yeah, that just seems like the better all-round solution to begin with.

-Slow time: I was planning on a slow time shout cooldown modifier change, I think it's somewhere in the later levels. I figure that as long as such a spell already exists, no reason to overbloat the character with active skills. As far as the bow thing goes, I was HOPING that if a character already had the 50% slow thing, then there would be some way to get rid of the effect it has on the player...so a really good archer/vampire could fire off several arrows while his foes are effectively immobile, the arrows hang in the air, and when the player unzooms, they all fly right to their targets at once. OOOOOR I could just end up slowing the player down to a crawl...we'll have to see!

-Glare: True. Very true. However, I still don't know. This one is probably one the most out of my control, since as you noted, players can independently change their glare already. Still, this change, more than any other I feel, makes the player really feel like a vampire, and does so without player statistic means. Maybe tone the multiplier down, but I want the sun to FEEL bright...this might also help with directing characters out of the sun (where they might be taking damage amounts they were unaware of).

-Carrying: If one armed goes up for a fledgling, I feel that CC should as well. Admittedly, not by much, as 10 lbs fills up quickly, but a newborn vampire might think (if they were to actually exist) "Hmm..I guess I am slightly stronger now..."
Or at least I imagine.

-Animal control: Good point on the bears/cats thing, but I want to save all wolves and their related interactions besides not-attacking-the-player to werewolves. As I said...uh..somewhere else, that's kinda their domain, their thing, if you will. And I will!

-Swimming: Contentious topic! Probably the one I've thought about most...but as far as I can tell, even a player always sank, there is nowhere where they'd be stuck forever, as all (?) pools of water have some sort of ramp leading out. Sure, that ramp might be farther away than if they could swim, but that's why they should be paying attention to their weaknesses!

-Biting: True. I'll change that to only working on living actors.

-Speech: Another odd one. I (and again, just me) always thought of vampires as being vaguely attractive in their lore...but the more vampiric they became, the more monstrous. Thus, they start out as more attractive than normal, which regresses as they "age"...but of course, this aging also grants them powers of persuasion, which I implemented in the spells. Think of it as them, at a certain level of being a monster, must expend mental energy to maintain a veneer of humanity or beauty.

-Water walking: See, I see waterwalking as a water based power of sorts, not to much a weakness. Of course, if they have their "grave dust" (another conundrum I'm grappling with) on them, they can walk/swim for a period of time before the "charge" runs out (perhaps an apply anywhere enchantment/"poison" on boots that grants water walking for x seconds?), but I really think this makes playing a vampire truly...like a vampire, as opposed to just some dark wizard of sorts.

As for the tapping and chocolate milk, well...there's no fun in telling! Suffice to say they come from well known tales of incredibly powerful vampires.

Spoiler

and



They're easter eggs for a reason