LordThauron

Certainly useful in the long run, but I'm looking for a simpler solution than the full-blown scripting method right now. Just the same, thanks. Passives - A bit closer to what I'm looking for, but a more accurate question is which condition flag would get the desired results. To be specific, the list of conditions from the drop-down menu (health percentage I've already found, but it's segment immediately before that) and what the condition should be "run on". Actives - I suppose it wasn't worded correctly, but the idea is for an enemy only using a particular ability until they're below a certain amount of health. For example, below 50% health, an enemy would gain the Unrelenting Force shout. The same flag for passives would mean certain aspects of an ability could be turned on and off based on an enemy's health, but my concern is the enemy using a "useless" ability due to the AI ignoring these same flags. Still, thanks for your help.

Just something of an idea I'm hoping to incorporate into my "Chronicles of the Fallen Order" mod, but I've run into something of a snag for what I thought was a relatively simple process that wouldn't be complicated at all. The idea is for various abilities NPCs will have to "unlock" upon their health being reduced below a certain value or percentage of their overall health, and to do so automatically. The same could also apply in reverse, with abilities being removed when their health drops below the aforementioned thresholds or when they heal themselves back above them. I'd prefer to be able to do this without resorting to scripts as well (meaning only using the conditions section for magic effects in the CK, assuming that's where it should be), and I'm fairly sure they exist. I'll likely have to use some actual scripting as the mod's development continues, but for now I'm trying to keep it simple. There are two main categories for this: - Passive Abilities - Active Abilities Passive abilities are simply "buffs" (mostly, could make some "trade-off" abilities based on this as well), intended to make an enemy more dangerous as their health gets lower. The other detail is that they'll have visual flags, largely based on the built-in visual effects from the game (such as the swirling blue mist from Dragonrend); a way of indicating to the player that the ability is now active. These should also have no set duration, only being "on" or "off" depending on whether or not an enemy's health is above or below a certain threshold. Active abilities are a bit more straight-forward, but the potential issue is that enemies may "waste" using the ability when it doesn't have any effect until their health drops below certain values. This is largely a question of whether or not the AI automatically doesn't use abilities which are flagged not to work until the conditions are met. A potential work-around could be having multiple effects layered into the active abilities, but more effects are applied as the conditions are met; leading to the same ability getting more potent as the NPC's health gets lower. Just looking for some quick guidance on the subject, thanks in advance.

Hello all, Mostly looking to hear some outside opinions concerning my next mod project, "Chronicles of the Fallen Order" (a.k.a.: "CotFO", as per the topic title). The scale of the mod I'm planning is a fair bit bigger than a generic quest/adventure mod, comprising of a total of 35 dungeons with several bosses and mini-bosses each; and to keep it both fresh (and respectably challenging), the equipment/loot found within will be entirely unique(ly enchanted) items which is intended to be of a calibre higher than most items found in the vanilla game. So far, I have a total of 25 full armour sets (the usual four pieces, plus a ring for each) planned out; so a minimum of 125 items, not counting pieces of equipment which aren't apart of a set, weapons, magic books, and other various goodies. The main question is how to distribute them: Do I go with fixed non-random drops or completely random ones? Should I use a crafting system; and if so, how important should new and unique components for the crafting be? Or should I go for some combination of those, and in which proportions? Furthermore, there's another question of how to weight the "drop value" of each item. Should chest/torso pieces be worth more than gauntlets, helm, and boots? How much so? This will also have a proportional effect on the strength for the enchanted effects the items will have. A careful touch on this subject will almost certainly be necessary, as I don't want the power of the items to scale out of control like they did in "Sanctum of the Fallen" (a rebuild of that location is planned for CotFO); and as a side note, I've figured out how to make items to be exempt from disenchanting (keyword: "DisallowMagicDisenchanting", or something along those lines). --- Fixed drops have a good advantage, as that particular approach allows for near total control of loot distribution. However, they can make for a "boring" progression curve due to it being fixed. Random drops would spice it up a fair bit, making the progression more interesting simply by not being fixed. However, in my experience is that this can be an easy source of frustration; obtaining a full set can be unnecessarily difficult if you have to clear the same location (or locations) repeatedly for the one item which only has a CHANCE of dropping. As of right now, certain items will be restricted to specific bosses; items which belong to specific bosses, to be claimed from their hands after you defeat them. The question is whether or not to make these guaranteed drops or not, though I'm leaning towards yes (due to them being an easy source of frustration otherwise). There's a good chance these items will be used against you in battle, by the bosses who will drop them. Anyhow, the random drops (if used) will be mostly concerning the armour sets mentioned earlier. These can be thrown around fairly easily, and it should be easy enough to control which random drops go where (for example, a particular boss will always drop a random chest piece and random pair of boots). This brings up the possibility of non-boss enemies having a chance to drop these items (rarely), so I'll have to look into random items and "death-items" in the CK. There's also the matter of non-equipment drops, ranging from spell tomes to lore books to crafting recipes (see below). Whether or not these should be random is quite debatable, and if they should be craftable either. --- As for the crafting system, because I consider it an absolute necessity if random drops are used in any measure; if going with entirely fixed drops, I will likely forgo this element. Simply, any piece of equipment which is considered a random drop will be craftable; simply to avoid unnecessary frustration, by allowing an option to obtain set pieces with more certainty. The first question is how to allow access to them, because I don't plan on going with the standard approach of tying it to an existing smithing perk. I may opt to bypass item or set-specific crafting recipes, but some variant of that (with new perks/spells/whatever to access them) with a wider net may be used. Access to the armour sets will likely be given fairly early, to the point the second dungeon of the central adventure is an armoury with an impressive forge; I may or may not give full access the craftable armour sets at this point, but I think partial access would be best. Next up is the use of new/unique components, which will almost certainly be drops (random or fixed) from the enemies included. Making them is simple enough, but how important they should be to crafting recipes isn't. How many mod-added components should be required? Should it be entirely mod-added components or should some vanilla components be included as well? What proportion should be needed? And of course, how rare should the mod-added components be? --- The final topic is loot-power progression, which more or less comes down to whether or not my crazy plan works. I'm going with a "stacking" enchantment bonus, a la Deathbrand set from the Dragonborn DLC. However, I'm aiming for a non-linear progression; a squared one to be specific. That means 1 base unit of the effect for one item, 4 times for two items, and 25 times for all five (capped at five, of course). This applies to "class" bonuses and set-specific bonuses, none of which are intended to be direct damage boosts (one class bonus is for attack speed, but that's it); these are more passive and/or defensive ones. The sets won't be without damage boosts however, but they'll be restricted to more linear patterns. There will be a bonus for a full set (probably on the ring), which could be just about anything (haven't planned those out yet). The intent is for no item to become obsolete (which can happen quite easily when you start toying with power progression), simply for them to work better together to create that sense of progression. Still, I want both a sense of power progression without it completely breaking the game. SotF's drops were more than a little insane; while required for the bosses within the dungeon, outside of it anything had a tendency to die in a single blow; the explosive strikes didn't help much either. I plan for the flashy attacks return, to an extent, but keeping it all in line but not stupidly overpowered is a must. If anyone has some more experience with power progression, I'm all ears on the subject. Another side note, I'll be keeping boss health bars to a more manageable state. No more "so much health that it won't move until it drops below 30k" (a few bosses in SotF exceeded this, greatly so in some cases), as it was both misleading and ridiculous; not to mention SkyRe had some perks which did damage in proportion to an enemy's maximum health, which would end up being a tad too effective due to the over-inflated health bars. However, I plan for some bosses to have the ability to heal; controlled of course, between cooldowns and healing-over-time effects. I'm also looking into certain passive abilities (including increased defensive power) being triggered by the enemy being below certain health values, which could make for some interesting battles. Scripting will largely be avoided, limited to stuff I can reverse-engineer from the effects in the base game. --- Thanks for reading. If anyone has some comments, particularly about any of the plan above which won't work, please say so.

Alrighty then, time to squeeze in a bit more info about my plans for CotFO. As noted before SotF is intended to roughly be the "halfway" mark for CotFO, so most of the planning is broken into two major components: leading up to SotF, and what to do afterwards. At the moment, I've mostly put my efforts into the lead up while the second half of the mod is rather bare-bones. Again, I'm trying to put effort into the pacing of the mod's storyline. As such, the key impetus is to establish and follow through some "driving questions" for each leg of the storyline; both for each of the smaller segments and the over-arcing story as a whole. And as a side note, I'll try to incorporate several side quests throughout the questline. The lead-up has a few key components which need to be included: - Establishing that the Fallen Order is looking for a defector - The introduction of Princeps (by finding him and fighting off a group of the FO) - The search for a new "base of operations", as well as the ongoing process of establishing/upgrading it as the mod story continues. - Two to four groups of smaller dungeons (bigger than most Skyrim dungeons, but still smaller than SotF), each following a particular theme. Each group will have a "finisher" dungeon of sorts which is larger and incorporates aspects of the preceding group. Right now I'm looking at an elemental (fire, frost, and shock; maybe light and dark too) themed group and another stemming from the seven deadly sins (SotF will be the "finisher" dungeon for this group). - There will be a return the base of operations between clearing out each group (and maybe before moving the the "finishers" above). Various updates and so on. - Immediately prior to SotF, the FO will besiege the base and capture Princeps; the reason for going to SotF is now to rescue him (though exactly where in SotF is up in the air, but it will be before the end of it). - The Numidium will show up at some point. But yes, pacing is the key. Keeping the FO relevant throughout (not just during the beginning and the end) will be key, and the whole time the player will be discovering tidbits about the history of the Fallen Order; what they've been doing the whole time, with them acting as a morally ambiguous group. The main focus will probably be one their actions surrounding the SotF, particularly after it was established; there will be inklings of what they did beforehand, but those should be next to impossible to determine beforehand (a lot of foreshadowing). This part of the adventure will take place mostly throughout Skyrim, and why that's relevant is next. The second half is nothing more than a skeleton right now, but the direction will be built around what the FO did before they built SotF. As implied in the first post, slaying Akatosh would end up being a VERY bad idea. His presence would be that of a "cosmic keystone" or a "barrier dragon", stemming from the idea that the Amulet of Kings keeps both Daedra and Aedra out of the world. Slaying the dragon is noble and all, but doing so has essentially unleashed hell upon the world. The Fallen Order will join you (being dovah themselves, kicking their asses in SotF earns you their respect) in the second leg of your grand adventure - by the way, you're going to Atmora! Now here is where things start breaking the lore-friendly parts of the game, as the key source of inspiration for the latter half is . The second half of the mod could be called "The Titan of Atmora"... with the twist being that the titan doesn't stand on Atmora, the titan is Atmora. For those familiar with XBC, the titan itself is a fallen god; a particularly powerful one at that, and slaying Akatosh has given him to necessary access to return to the world in his original body. Right now, the intent is it to be Lorkhan/Shor himself; like the FO he won't be an entirely evil entity, and I'll try to play the tragic villain angle for this part. Another, otherwise inconsequential character, will end up being him as you move towards trying to stop the titan's revival; exactly when this character is introduced is hard to say. Of course, something this big simply must move towards the end of the storyline; with the currently undefined other character playing the entire case for chumps (Lorkhan being the "trickster god") and advancing his own objectives, all the while making it look like you're stopping who he really is. The finale will likely involve a cheap trick (a small cell to represent the actually massive battlefield)... but it will involve the player becoming a glowing, golden, transparent titan themselves and dueling the Titan of Atmora to the death. There may or may not be a follow up to this; if there was, it would involve a normal sized player and his group of allies (Princeps, Imperius, the FO, probably a revived Akatosh, and others) collectively taking down the spirit of Lorkhan after the titan has (quite literally) fallen. But yes, that's just the key events; the second half will invariably involve scaling the titan (which is intended to be comparable in size to Skyrim... well, maybe somewhat smaller), but the events still need to be expanded and fleshed out.

Good morning everyone! To get the obvious disclaimer out of the way... The primary purpose of this thread is get much of the planning for the "Chronicles of the Fallen Order" (CotFO) sorted out so that I can get started building this mod proper without having to revise large chunks. Any and all who want to enjoy this mod (eventually) without having the storyline spoiled for them should leave this topic now. Now with that sorted, we can get down to business. --- The size and scope I have envisioned for this project demands planning, particularly since I intend to ensure that the storyline's pacing is seen to; I've seen several games which have fallen flat due to poor pacing, and similarly I've also seen that great pacing can make up for quite a bit. I don't exactly have much experience in this area, so I know that I'm going to need a fair bit of help to get that particular aspect sorted. I believe the final result will still be somewhat cliched, but I also know that good writing can make up for it; but again, I don't exactly have a ton of experience in that area. Another key point is that I intend to make it somewhat lore-friendly, in the sense that it's not blatantly violating many of the details already established in The Elder Scrolls lore; doing some research the other day actually showed me that the ideas I've been running with may have to be revised, and that a few characters may have to be switched around. The "launching point" for this mod is my last project, "Sanctum of the Fallen" (SotF). The titular "Fallen Order" were a recurring enemy in that dungeon, and it will be included as a part of CotFO; specifically, the halfway mark of the mod. The finale of SotF had the player going toe-to-toe (and slaying) a deranged Akatosh, stemming from the idea that slaying Alduin would cause him to destroy the world in his despair. I'm planning on keeping this revelation in, and it will serve as the key turning point of the storyline as it evolves from a fairly small scale plot (at that point) to a semi-generic "save the world" one. Disovering the mysteries behind the Fallen Order, their purpose and objectives (and subsequently dealing with them), is more or less the point of the mod; they aren't intended to be an evil faction, but one which has a history of doing a lot of bad things for the greater good (along with being comprised entirely of Dovahkiin). The original plan was for the storyline to follow a character named "Princeps", the name taken from an official title for the roman emperor. He was going to be a defector from the Fallen Order, on the run from them as he sought to find out all of the secrets they were withholding from him and the rest of the world. Imperius, the "official final boss" of SotF, was going to have a more expanded role due to his status of the leader of the Order; creating something of a rivalry between him and Princeps. Speaking of which, he would make the one to state a particularly important reveal after slaying Akatosh in SotF (yes, he won't be quite dead when defeated): Imperius (addressing Princeps): "Talos, what have you done?" But again, this was the original plan. My research came across the figure "Wulfharth", who taught the then-mortal Talos the Way of the Voice and also served as a body-double for him at times before the event in TES lore referred to as "The Arcturian Heresy"; he was betrayed (and slain, again) by Talos at this point. Zurin Arctus was another important figure, and the exact circumstances (including who became "the Underking") are rather confusing. Right now I'm leaning towards making Imperius and Princeps to really be Wulfharth and Talos respectively, but I'm really wondering if I should reverse those roles. Imperius has to have been around for a very long time (being called "the Ancient" in SotF), whereas Princeps is "the new guy" in the FO. Tricky territory in any case, but it does make a good starting point. And as a quick tidbit, the "Aspect of Wrath" from SotF will probably end up being Pelinal Whitestrake. In his berserk state, of course; also probably going to swap one of his twin swords for a mace to suit the situation. I'll have to get back to saying some more details later, gotta dash. Feel free to add some suggestions.

Link to the mod with issues -- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19913 Hello gents, I've been having some compatability issues with my latest mod ("Sanctum of the Fallen"). It doesn't seem to be isolated conflicts either, it's almost as if anything which adds something to Skyrim's world-space conflicts with it; so I'm starting to think it might be due to something on my end. I'm just trying to figure out if there's some step I missed when connecting the dungeon to the world-space of Skyrim. I don't think it's cells having identical names either. Just some of the measures I've tried so far: 1. Moving the tower which serves as the world-space location of the dungeon (by a strange fluke, the original version version seemed to straddling multiple wilderness cells). 2. Re-generating & finalizing the NavMesh for the cell(s?) where the world-location of the dungeon is located. I still get a CTD when I try to load a save with my mod and any of the conflicts active. This is assuming that the world location is the problem with the mod, it might be something else. Nevertheless, the conflicts are a bit too numerous for it to be something with the other mods. I'd greatly appreciate any tips, trouble-shooting, anything which will help solve this problem. Thanks for your time. *PROBLEM SOLVED* -- Converting the file to an ESM solved the issue.