Hello,
This is my first post as I'm truly more of a do it yourself programmer/modder, but I cannot figure this out.
I am trying to make a detect dead spell that behaves exactly like the vanilla one, but is toggled on and off rather than concentration casted. I've managed to get it to work on living actors, but corpses seem impossible to affect in this manner. Below is what I've tried before. I think this may require a custom scripted spell, but I can't figure out how to write a script that affects corpses not targeted, but rather within an area of the caster.
Attempt 1: I modified the original detect life spell to be called as a constant effect ability by the "ToggleAbility" script. (This script uses a fire and forget spell to turn on an ability, and then off again when the spell is cast again).
Result 1: Created a spell that detected dead things, but they remained highlighted after the ability was removed (I believe that the constant effect was applied to the corpse and then no longer retained any relation to whether or not the player had the ability or not)
Attempt 2: I modified the Frost Cloak vanilla spell to have an increased range and create the detect dead highlight rather than being hostile or doing any damage. The Frost Cloak spell casts a Concentration/Aimed-or-TargetActor type spell at any living actor within the range.
Result 2: The cloak archetype seemed to be unable to affect existing corpses in any way. I WAS, however, able to create an effect on living things as they turned to corpses (died). But the effect only on their death, it had no effect when cast again with the corpse already being dead.
The problem here, seems to be the lack of an area of effect archetype that can affect corpses in the area of the player. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks for reading!
Edited by mathern, 06 May 2013 - 12:10 am.