forascalon

Not sure what was going on here, but I have confirmed that I can use the Concentration cast type on the damage spell successfully. I also made another huge leap (for me) and got the final product out at last! This ended up being set of robes with something like the Ebony Mail enchantment, except with fear instead of poison damage, and you can disenchant them and put the enchantment on a new piece of chest armor! I had to do the following to make this work, in case any other modders out there need a step-by-step guide on how to do this: Armor -> Enchantment (0_FearCloakENCH), which uses the initial Magic Effect (0_FearCloakPrimaryEffect) Primary "Effect" has no real settings, but gives the player a hidden "Perk" (0_FearCloakPERK) The Perk assigns two "Ability" type spells, and each spell has its own unique, internal condition for activation (IsSneaking=1 for the muffle effect, and IsInCombat=1 for the fear aura effect). When in combat, the actual Cloak effect is activated (0_FearCloakSelfEffect) in order to paint you all badass black and call up the associated damage spell (0_FearCloakDMGSpell) The damage spell has its own Magic Effect, using the Demoralize archetype, Concentration cast type, and Aimed delivery - and it works like a charm!!! This gave me so much grief it's hard to believe. I'm sure I missed something obvious during my testing, but now it's complete and I'm thoroughly enjoying the results. I'm also certain there is an easier way to do this, but I'm not editing this mod anymore, lol! This setup also works for the generic Ebony Mail enchantment, if anyone is interested to know. :-) https://mods.bethesda.net/#en/workshop/skyrim/mod-detail/3216249 - you can see the finished product here! Thank you all so much for your advice, and patience.

That's so insane! LOL I'll have to keep messing around to see if I can figure out why it wasn't working for me. Thank you very much for all your suggestions.

Aha! Gentlemen, thank you for your thoughts. :-) @NexusComa - I've attached images of the Primary Effect (what is actually linked to the Enchantment itself) and also the Damage Effect (attached to a spell, which is called by the Primary effect). @lofgren - I am 100% certain you are correct, sir. You can definitely use a Concentration cast-type as the "hit effect" of a cloak spell normally. However, normally those hit spells use the "Value Modifier" archetype to damage health, magicka, or stamina. I don't believe you can use this archetype to modify "confidence" because it doesn't get regenerated in the same way. My hit spell uses the "demoralize" archetype, as you can see from the attached picture, to lower the target's confidence, which is a timed effect. It seems to me after hours of testing that this particular archetype doesn't actually lower the target's confidence at all if you choose Concentration instead of Fire and Forget when using Demoralize as the archetype. If I use a regular damage health effect, I can absolutely set it to Concentration and everything works normally. Are you telling me you've created a Fear Cloak spell like this using a Concentration cast type before? I'll believe you, I'm just not sure we're on the same page. I appreciate your willingness to look into this with me. It's been a real puzzler!

Thank you for that insightful, constructive post, sir! It may be that a single spell, set to Concentration cast type with Demoralize archetype can be used as a normal attack spell on an enemy - I haven't tested that. However, with a Cloak spell, specifically, configuring the "damage spell" component to use Concentration causes my spell to do absolutely nothing. Setting that single variable to "Fire and Forget" instead of Concentration causes the spell to work as expected, and changing only that one value back again causes the spell to fail as I described above. Perhaps I should be more specific and say that in this particular enchantment I'm working on the Fear mechanic will not work as a Concentration cast type, but there may be other ways in which it does.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you lofgren - if I set the damage effect to "Concentration" cast type instead of "Fire and Forget" it does not work. The effect hits the target (i.e. you can see the hit visual), but causes no change in behavior. As soon as I change it back to Fire and Forget it works normally, unless I try to edit the primary cloak effect, which breaks it because you can't choose the damage spell anymore when it's set to be Fire and Forget. It's all very complicated, but in testing this is the only way I've been able to get this to work. Just so we're clear, I'm referencing several different components here: 1. Enchantment --> 2. Primary Magic Effect (specified in the Enchantment window, a Cloak archetype, Constant Effect cast type) : this gives you the cloak visual effect on yourself and calls the damage spell --> 3. Associated Item (an actual damage Spell chosen from a drop-down list inside the Primary Magic Effect's window) : called by the primary effect --> 4. The Damage Effect (magic effect specified inside the Damage Spell, Fire and Forget cast type, Demoralize archetype) : actually does the damage to the enemy

The problem with using the Cloak archetype and a Concentration-type damage spell is that the Demoralize archetype on the damage spell will not work as a Concentration cast type - the spell "hits" the target visually, but has no actual effect. As far as I've been able to tell the only way for a fear spell to work is as a "Fire and Forget" casting type, simply because of the way it affects the target's "Confidence"; for whatever reason, it just won't work as a Concentration spell. I suspect it's because "Confidence" can't be restored like Health, Stamina, or Magicka - it just functions differently. That being said, I don't think you necessarily have to use the Cloak archetype to make something with the same effect. As long as you're using the Hit Shaders and other visual effects from the spell of your choice (in my case, the Ebony Mail) you might be able to use some other archetype and still chain the primary effect to your damage spell - I'm not sure, I'll have to play around with that. In the meantime, I also need to test publishing the mod and having a friend try to use it, to see if saving it wonky like I described above allows it to work for her. Cheers!

Well now, here's a nice little tidbit for anyone wanting to make a Fear Aura enchantment or spell: When you make the base magic effect, whether it's an enchantment or a spell, you use the "Cloak" archetype if you're following a template. That archetype ONLY allows you to select "Concentration" type spells from the Assoc. Item 1 drop-down list, which means if you've created a damage spell that uses a magic effect with the "Demoralize" archetype and a "Fire and Forget" casting type, you WON'T BE ABLE TO SELECT IT as the associated item for your primary magic effect.... In testing, if I create a damage spell with NO EFFECT listed and set it to "Concentration" casting type, I can then choose it as the associated item for my primary magic effect. If I then go and CHANGE that casting type to Fire and Forget, it lets me select the custom Fear damage effects I created just fine, and AS LONG AS I DON'T OPEN THE PRIMARY EFFECT AGAIN I can save the mod and it works perfectly. However, if I open the primary magic effect (the one listed on the enchantment, or the actual spell you cast) it has no associated item with it and will no longer trigger the damage spell. I know that all sounds complex, but it's what I've discovered. I'll try using a different Archetype instead of "Cloak" since it doesn't really have to be a cloak spell to function the way it does, but I'm willing to bet that just breaks it in a new and exciting way, lol.

WOOHOO! I figured it out! To make an "Aura" with the Fear effect: First you create the "Aura" spell or enchantment - you can use any of the pre-existing ones as templates. Each one uses a Magic Effect to define what the spell looks like on you (hit shader), what sounds it makes, etc., but most importantly the "Associated Item" which is the Damage Spell. You then create a "spell" that calls a second Magic Effect that actually does the damage - again, pre-existing damage spells are fine for templates. The catch is that for ILLUSION type spells you're not using the same Magic Effect "archetype". For Fire, Frost, Shock, and even the Poison effect on the Ebony Mail they all use "Value Modifier" and specify whether Health, Magicka, or Stamina is getting lowered. For the "Value Modifier" archetype, specifying a "Concentration" type spell is what Bethesda does - so you have a constant tick of "damage" whenever the spell comes into contact with a target. For ILLUSION the archetype is different - for Fear, specifically, it's "Demoralize" which lowers Confidence - and this CANNOT BE A CONCENTRATION TYPE SPELL!! I just set the damage spell's magic effect to be "Fire and Forget" and voila! it works! Now I just have to tinker with the strength and timer on the effect to reach a good balance. Thank you all for your suggestions!

I've tinkered with the strength of the spell several different ways: - The actual damage effect is caused by a "spell" which is referenced by the primary magic effect of the enchantment. (Complex, I know, but it works for the original poison effect), so I edit the strength of my fear spell to do anywhere from 10 to 50 points of the "demoralize" magic effect. I've saved and reloaded to try several increments between these two values with no visible difference. - In testing I've set my character to 100 Illusion with all the perks. - I've tried this on Falmer of several levels and some general NPCs in Solitude. Each time the effect is "triggered" successfully - i.e. you can see the "hit" effect listed - but there seems to be no "Fear" effect working on the. If I equip a regular "Fear" spell on the character, he can cast it just fine at all these targets and it works.

I'm having trouble making a "Fear" effect work as the damage of an "aura" type spell. Basically I'm copying the Ebony Mail enchantment so that instead of Poison damage ticking every second it will do a Fear type effect instead. So far I can get the effect to proc - hostile enemies receive the shadowy "hit" effect specified - but they aren't being feared away from me. It's a very complex set of spells within spells - basically the "DA02PoisonDamageFFAimed" magic effect is called every second, but if you change the details of the effect from "Value Modifier" to "Demoralized" archetype, and remove the PoisonResist resistance it just doesn't appear do anything at all. It has to remain a "Concentration" type effect, and be "aimed" as opposed to Self or Constant, but I just can't seem to get it to actually effect the enemies' confidence levels. Any suggestions? P.S. I'm talking about the magic effect properties on this type of menu: https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Magic_Effect

Did a bit more searching today and found a handful of different mods that shared all Nord skin tones between elves, another that shared human beards with elves, and added a few tweaks of my own to share some human eye colors as well as adding Nord skin tones to Orcs. I was able to merge all these together with the "Merge Plugins Standalone", so now I am a happy camper with a single skin tone/beard/eye vanilla asset mod. Cheers!

Just a quick question really: is there an easy way to copy/paste the tinting data presets for skin tones from one race to another? If you look under the Tinting tab of a given Race then click the Skintones.dds tint layer, you see all the Preset colors for that race's skin. My favorite playthrough was with a High-Elf that used a human flesh-tone skin color, and now I'd love to make all humanoid skin tones available to every non-beast race, but adding each preset one at a time manually to each of the humanoid races is killing me, lol. I tried looking for a mod that already does this, but the only thing I found was one that added a hundred colors in all sorts of silly cartoonish hues. I just want to share what's already available and natural looking amongst all the humanoid races, and am looking for a quick way to copy/paste that data in the Creation Kit, if one exists. :-)

Note: I saw a mod yesterday, "Perfect Legionnaire", that transfers the ugly fur collar from Jarl clothes to Legion armor, which leads me to believe my request is do-able! If it was simply a matter of moving AA parts around I'd do it myself (like using hoods without robes attached, simple) but I don't believe the clothing parts I listed above have separate AA components.

I have no talent in messing with .nif files, or whatever else would need to be done to accomplish this, but I would go bonkers if someone could make a small mod that just disassembled some of the clothing layers in Skyrim. For example: - Jarl tunics "Noble Clothes" : remove the ridiculous fur collar? - Mantled College Robes: could the mantle part be removed, and maybe the satchel? Would be awesome if the mantles could be worn independently over other robes! - Thalmor Robes: same thing! Can the mantle be removed? I saw a "high collar stand alone" mod that looked interesting, separating hood from collar. Now if only the mantle could go! - Ebony Mail: is it possible to remove the funky metal plate on the chest, to make it more cloth-like? That mesh would rock with a hood if the metal plate didn't clip. - Forsworn and other accessories: small skulls, pouches, bottles, etc. etc., kind of like the Bandoliers Bags & Pouches mod (so very cool!) I just think more modular choices would lead to loads more combination choices for players. The robe mantles would be so great to wear independently with other clothes/armors.

Hi everyone! Loving Skyrim more every day, and constantly impressed by the fabulous modding community the Elder Scrolls series has created! I'd like to throw and idea out there for all those talented modders looking for a project: The Nightingale Armor is arguably one of the coolest sets in the game, and it's certainly one of the most frequently modded. That being said, I see a lot of replacers and retextures out there, but nobody has addressed the models themselves. I love the NG armor, but I'd like to see the body armor model changed up just a bit - the SKIRT bothers me, lol! The rest of the armor is so tight and smooth, then you have the awkward skirt that (lets face it) has always been difficult for Bethesda to make 'move' right. How about someone replace the lower half of the armor with the Dark Brotherhood's Shrouded Armor pants (form-fitting leathery stuff) and retexture it to match? It might be tough to get it to blend seamlessly with the boots and waistline of the chest art, but Shor's bones I think this would look really cool! :cool: