[Spell System Mods?]

The easy availability of magic and its ability to be exploited is one of my last remaining beefs with oblivion that no one has addressed yet. As Vagrant pointed out, Midas Magic is an excellent start. But I too want an overhaul of the whole system. Here are my thoughts on what youve stated so far.

 

1. I like the idea of spells being less available to the player. I dont really like there being fewer spells overall. Variety is still nice. Just like having different swords. But it shouldnt be so easilly earned just by buying it or finding it randomly in a dungeon. (So long as finding such things would be common place). This helps to address the issue of there being no thrill in finding new spells.

 

2. I dont like the idea of being able to buy just about any spell. Maybe some very weak ones. But even those should be considered luxuries by common folk and even nobles in the world. Therefore, they shouldnt be cheap.

 

The rest of it Im not too fond of I guess. Mostly for the same reason that Vagrant said, and because I wouldnt like spells being made more common to fix that issue. Thats just me though.

 

I actually kinda like the current system. I just want it all to be more like Midas magic, with fewer spell vendors or vendors with fewer and weaker spells with better spells found in the depths of dungeons, guarded by various things that want to keep the knowledge to themselves.

[A request for the Amulet of Auryn / Auryn Amulet]

Well I might get to the point that I can make creatures someday. Im just moving slow right now. I've got scripting and the CS down. Im just starting to learn Blender and Nifscope and have only just done some of my first work with meshes. So it will be a while till I acquire the skills to make new creatures, if I ever do. It is my goal to get there, though. Theres aot of things I want to make.

 

Anyways, no worries L33Nexus. I know of few of the things you are working on, and those deserve your time more since they are mcuh cooler. :) But if you ever get around to it it would be great! ;)

[A request for the Amulet of Auryn / Auryn Amulet]

No one likes the never ending story? :( Kinda like Oblivion, huh? Edit (just realized this said something I didnt mean at all, lol. I mean Oblivion is like the never ending story, not that no one likes either) I think it looks very Oblivionesque. I can see it hanging on something at the end of some dark dungeon similar to what you have to go through for the quest dealing with the Pale Pass. With the snakes and all its very akaviri like.

[Is it possible?]

Im curious about what sort of scipting it would take. The doors and the inside are easy to deal with, imo. As Vagrant said, another world takes care of the inside, and there dont need to be any doors directly connected to the outside of the building. So the issue is how to get the building itself to move.

 

How could you get all those peices to move together at the same time? Combining some meshes might make the task a little easier. You would have fewer things you would have to move. But as far as the animatiion goes, Im afraid I havent ever dealt with moving objects. Not yet anyways. But I think this is possible with some work put into it.

 

First thought that comes to mind is something similar to those moving pillars or gates. But with a very long path way for it to move along. Then just place it in the sky and let it do its thing.

[A request for the Amulet of Auryn / Auryn Amulet]

I couldnt find one anywhere, and thought it would be a pretty cool amulet to see ingame. So I thought I'd mention it here incase anyone with the skills to make it is interested. :)

 

Here are some pics:

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/3588638793_bf0212b6ed.jpg

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Gxd3kkQLZHo/R3wutqNsoII/AAAAAAAAATg/7eHOFBI-XFQ/s320/AURYN.png

[Diallogue Help]

How do you make greeting like what the NPC will say to you when you first talk to them before you can ask them things. And how do you make topics only to be said bya specific NPC, Race, Class, or faction.

 

for all these things you use special conditions. You can see the conditions at the bottom of the CS when looking at the dialogue.

[Getting an error message in CS]

I just created a new mesh and tested it out in the CS. It works fine in the CS and in game, but when exiting the CS I get this error message sometimes.

 

"Shader 1 is leaking with 2 references on shutdown"

 

Like I said, I only get it sometimes. I just tried it again right before posting this so that I could be sure to get the error message right, but it didnt show up this time. Anyone know what it means or how to fix it? Im very new to Blender and NifScope, so any help will be much appreciated. :)

[Need some help with NifScope and modeling advice]

I guess I was in the wrong program all together, lol. Thanks.

[Need some help with NifScope and modeling advice]

What I want to do is very simple, atleast it sounds very simple to me. I want to take vanilla cave interior meshes that have a floor and a ceiling and separate them so that the floor and ceiling can be used independently of one another. This will allow me to greatly diversify the caves Im making by giving me the ability to make multiples of levels within a cave, using different ceilings and floors together that normally cant be used together. In Vanilla, you can only make 2 levels Im pretty sure, and while most seem like they would look good if used together, they cant be used together because the ceilings dont fit.

 

I've been messing around in NifScope for a while, trying to figure it out. It's just too complicated without a guide. But Im not having any luck finding a reasonable tutorial either.

 

Is there anyone here who might be able to direct me to a guide of some sort that would show me how to accomplish what Im trying to do?

[Quests Need Your Love!]

Not much to add here I suppose. I would like it if more modelers would leave their great work open for others to use, atleast after asking permission first. But oh well. As Vagrant said, there are a great many underused and under appreciated resources out there.

 

Im currently working on a quest mod that I cant wait to finish and release, and Im making use of quite alot of these under used resource mods. If I come up with an idea for something Id like to have, I do a general search for it and read all the readmes for peoples mod. If they grant permission or seem like they would in the readme, then I download it. If not, I move on. There are alot more fish in the sea.

[I just do not get "GetSecondsPassed"]

Ahh! Actually, I got it to work thanks to you. I guess Im just going to have to play around with that function until I understand it better. It really was just those few errors that were holding it back, thanks for pointing them out :)

 

This is what I ended up with

 

Scn di3TriggerCollapseAndCapture

short triggered
float timer
ref target
ref mySelf

Begin GameMode

If ( Player.GetDistance di3CaptureTrigger <= 150 ) && ( triggered == 1 ) 
	set target to getParentRef
	set mySelf to getSelf
	target.activate mySelf 1
	DisablePlayerControls
	Set timer to 6
	Set triggered to 2
endif

If ( timer > 0 ) && ( triggered == 2)
	set timer to timer - GetSecondsPassed
Elseif ( timer <= 0 )  && ( Player.GetDistance di3CaptureTrigger <= 150 )
	player.RemoveAllItems di3RemovedItemsChest001, 1
	SetShowQuestItems 1
	EnablePlayerControls
	Player.MoveToMarker di3ARCellMarker
endif
endif
	
end

[I just do not get "GetSecondsPassed"]

Thanks, I hadnt noticed that I messed up the triggered and put 3 instead of 2. But the (triggered == 4) was me trying to prevent that line of script from occuring before the first part does, since timer is always at 0 until it is set to something greater. So If I do as you suggested, and remove the extra condition, that part of the script plays out as soon as the game loads up. I dont want that to happen.

 

I tried reversing this once so that the timer counted up instead of down to avoid that problem. but Im just not understanding how getsecondspassed works so Im not having much luck with it.

 

Thanks for the help, though. I'll keep fiddling with it until I get it to work.

[I just do not get "GetSecondsPassed"]

Im usually very good at figuring out these things myself, I've never been stumped by any scripting function till now. I've read the wiki article on this function a dozen times now and have fiddled with my script for a few hours with no luck. All Im trying to do is set off a series of actions around the player, wait a few seconds until they are finished, then complete the script.

 

Here is what I have right now. It was alot simpler when I started out, and has probably grown a few superfluous things while I was trying to get it to work.

 

Scn di3TriggerCollapseAndCapture

short triggered
float timer
ref target
ref mySelf

Begin GameMode

If ( Player.GetDistance di3CaptureTrigger <= 150 ) && ( triggered == 1 ) 
	Set target to getParentRef
	Set mySelf to getSelf
	Target.activate mySelf 1
	DisablePlayerControls
	Set timer to 3
	Set triggered to 2
EndIf

If ( timer > 0 ) && ( triggered == 3)
	Set timer to timer - GetSecondsPassed
	Set triggered to 4
ElseIf ( timer == 0 ) && ( triggered == 4 )  
	player.RemoveAllItems di3RemovedItemsChest001, 1
	SetShowQuestItems 1
	Set triggered to 5
	Player.MoveToMarker di3ARCellMarker
EndIf
EndIf
	
End

 

Any help explaining to me how I am supposed to make GetSecondsPassed work correctly here, and in general, would be much appreciated. BTW, the first trigger is set to 1 by another script, just incase anyone wonders about it. I guess I also need to point out whats going wrong. So far, the results of the final ElseIf never occur. I dont know why...

[Green Dead Bodies]

Hey guys,

 

I had the exact same problem and fixed it yesterday. You need to either register your MMM.bsa in oblvion.ini OR rename it to FCOM_Convergence - MMM.bsa. The game couldn't find blood textures from the bsa, and defaulted to green. That's why it only happens on dead bodies. You may have also have noticed some (not all though) invisible crabs. Corepc gave this solution on another thread so full credit to him for the heads-up.

 

Cheers,

 

Zzrow Graff

 

This is precisely what I was thinking. I have FCOM, and though I dont have the same issue and have never seen it before, I was thinking about the things that effect corpses. Something in FCOM adds blood textures to corpses on death and to those already dead sometimes. Im pretty sure that it is MMM. I was going to suggest looking there for the issue also.

[Some odd behavior in CS with textures/meshes]

Thanks for your attempt to help, though the problem has inexplicably solved itself without me doing anything at all. I have no idea what caused it in the first place, and have no idea what fixed it. I have a theory about what happened though, and it's exactly what you hinted at about the CS being slow to catch up.

 

I recently discovered I have a set of vanilla meshes for goblins in the goblin folder for some odd reason. Im guessing that when I removed that folder while the CS was active, and the models for all the goblins were coming from that folder, every goblin in the game ended up losing their meshes. I still dont know why the goblins using my meshes were messed up though.

 

Anyways, I just now tried going into the game to have a look at some goblins, fully expecting there to be giant exclamations everywhere, and there were none. Then I went back into the CS and, lo and behold, everything was running smooth. No more error messages and no more missing meshes.

 

Wasted about 4hrs of my time trying to fix something that wasnt actually broken, but oh well.

[Some odd behavior in CS with textures/meshes]

This is whats happening:

 

I removed the meshes file for goblins and replaced it with another with only certain files inside so that I could work with only the meshes that are mine and vanilla with no confusion. When I open the CS and load just Oblivion.esm and then apply the new model to the goblin it works wonderfully. No issues at all.

 

But if I try to load up my mod and do this I get missing mesh exclamations on every goblin in the game whether they are using vanilla meshes or mine. When I put the removed folder back in its place and merge it with my meshes then things work fine.

 

I have no idea why this is happening, does anyone else?

[Scariest Place in Oblivion]

I agree that nothing in vanilla was really scary, though I found the Oubliette had me on edge the whole way through, made me jumb a number of time. Cant say that for any other mod Ive palyed.

[To make a creature speak]

Im working on a part of my mod where I would like to get a creature to speak, or simulate it atleast. I know the typical dialogue screen isnt going to work, but there are other options. I already have a few in mind, but because I havent had lots of experience with scripting there may be a few ways of doing this that Im not aware of.

 

Im just trying to figure what everyone thinks the best option is, either among my ideas, or ones I havent thought of

 

Ideas I have come up with:

 

1. Easy and cheesy queast update box. I like this one the least, and will most likely not use it unless to compliment my other ideas.

 

2. Message boxes with various buttons to simulate dialogue options. I can do this one easily, but it has the disadvantage of not having any voicing possible.

 

3. An invisible npc that I spawn nearby out of sight who begins to talk through conversation topics after I disable player controls. I can also suppliment message boxes at certain points to represent dialogue options.

I think that the thrid one is the best because I can then voice the dialogue. Though it will be a little harder and require quite a bit more work to pull off.

 

These are the only ideas I have, and are inspired only by the things that I KNOW are possible. There may be things that I dont know about, and I am a competent scripter even if I dont know of all the tools avialable to me. So, is this the best I can get, or are there any other ideas out there?

 

(edit) I meant to put this in a more appropriate forum. Didnt realize I was posting to this one. I suppose this forum is ok though?

[100 things nobody knows about The Elder Scrolls IV *POTENTIAL SPOILERS]

Not really in Oblivion its self, but the ID of most of the bambi looking deer in that game is "OblivionSiegeTarget"

 

There is also a quest ID named "lindacarter" the quest is named "for mtv promo" There are no stages, scripts, or dialogue associated with the quest, however.

[lack of religious importance]

I agree with what kieranfoy said, how is a god defined in Oblivion other than a being who possesses alot of power? A rather typical aspect of the definition. But where is the power derived? From miraculous or extaordinary abilities. The abilities that are attributed to various gods in the real world are all achievable by various creatures in Oblivion, and its almost always through the use of magic. So Id say what makes a god in Oblivion is ones access and ability to make use of a great deal of magic. I could see someone making a good case that such a being is'nt a god at all. Atleast not one that ought to be worshiped simply because they possess great magical ability, though anyone might want to make friends with such a being.

 

Anyways, I like the more simple aproach already mentioned about there being more diverse and opposing religious factions. This kind of thing could go in so many different directions with good results.

 

@Vagrant0's post

 

I think what you said there would create a very good reason for someone to try to begin an opposing religious, or non religious, faction.

[Doing something wrong]

scriptname RTWS01ED

Short Fade
Short FadeFlag
Short Fader

Begin GameMode
if Player.getdistance DiramSerethiRef < 140
Enable
ElseIf Player.getdistance DiramSerethiRef >141 
If fadeFlag == 1
If fader >= 0
set fader to (fader - getSecondsPassed)
endif
endif
endif

if fader < 0
disable
set fadeFlag to 0
endif

End

 

This should work, it does for me. I added the short name variable because the CS did not recognize them as functions and niether do I. I also fixed some minor errors in the one you posted. Also, the Refs I used were just a random ref I picked to get the script to save

 

another edit, I just realized that you may want to reverse the player and ref in the getdistance function. If thats the case, you were good on that. Just got to put in the ref to the object you are looking for to get closer or further from the player

[Walk Like A Wizard]

Ive seen something similar to this in OOO. Though the "staffs" are actually shields that look like staffs.

 

To get the same look as in OOO and the same functionality as a normal staff would be cool in some ways. Im not sure how hard it would be to do something like this. I havent delved into that type of moding yet.

 

It just occured to me that Ive also seen a very similar type of animation you want in OOO with hanging lamps. Just replace the hanging lamps with something that looks like a staff and it may look like what you want.

[lack of religious importance]

I think there is plenty of room for more religious oriented mods, and with some focus on atheism as well. After all, Elsa God Hater seems to think that gods never actually do anything and there are plenty of daedra worshipers. I also think there is some room for mono theism. I think an idea borrowed from StarGate could make a great monotheistic religion oriented mod.

 

Think of it, some big bad guy who wants to become a god and so he starts talking trash about the current gods. He can perform some pretty amazing "miracles" with what power he has and so he starts to convert people. With a growing number of followers, his power grows also, eventually making him quite dangerous to the existing gods. I was going to do something like this with the mod Im working on right now, but it didnt work out for the story line i came up with.

 

There are plenty of things that can be done along these lines. I have two more ideas just off hand for some new god scenarios

[Who Are You?]

My characters name is Udayen, named after my rather strong magician in EQ.

 

Udayen is a young (atleast he looks that way) Breton warrior with some skill in magic. He became a vampire at a young age during a war he was conscripted into while studying to become a wizard. His actual age and origins are unknown, and he refuses to reveal them to anyone. He is haunted by his conflicting morals and his need for human blood as a vampire. He attempts to reconcile with his less good side by doing good deeds for random people and seeking out adventure through exploration and doing certain "good" deeds that the fighters guild or the Imperial guard wont do. He will not hesitate to kill a fellow vampire if they are too vicious for the safety of the general population or he is attacked by them. Despite these things, he is reluctant to seek out a cure for vampirism. Possibly because the lure of immortality and power are too great to give up.

 

He has a good deal of skill in the schools of Illusion and mysticism but has more training as a soldier. Being a rather good looking guy and a naturaly smooth talker, there are few people he cant persuade to do what he wants. He enjoys history and so he likes to seek out lost ayleid ruins more so than he likes adventuring elsewhere.

 

He has been approached by the Dark Brotherhood on a number of occasions. He has many of the skills and desires that a good assassin would need. He has refused on each occasion however. He does what he does for what he thinks of as the "salvation" of his soul and not monetary gain. He also refuses to kill someone if he doesnt know that they deserve to die.

 

Well, thats Udayen. A vampire Breton who is a mage/warrior combo

[looking for some help with a little sript problem]

Thanks alot, the kill function did the trick! It now works exactly as I wanted. Only unfortunate side effect now is that I cant position him exactly as I wanted :( I liked being able to position him in such a way that made it look like he was running from something when he died.

 

Oh well, not much is lost in that aspect. Thanks again!