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It's been quite long since the last update so this post is basicaly to tell that I'm still working on this mod and improving it every day. It has passed throught so many stages and it has had so many forms, and I myself have considered making it in several different ways, but after balancing every possibility I think that now it is in it's way to become some day a "finished" mod. So what this means is that I'll still working on this mod, maintaning the same structure and adding improvements and new features as long as this structure/engine allow them. Finally I desist from attempting to make other mods's spells being cast-able like chargeable spells, because that'd be a big mess that would require a lot of compatibility patches and because there's a big technical issue regarding how magic overhauls mods tweak magic and how chargeable spells makes it's calcs affects the spells. Rather I'll incorporate new chargeable spells simulating these effects and assuming their limitations (I can and will make a Force/Push spell and multiple creature summons, but I can't do new visuals), so if you have some suggestion about certain spells not involving custom-made heavy-scripted effects then please let me know and I'll try to add them. On another department, about settings/configuration: I'll still making the 'core' version transparent, I mean that it will take the values about magicka cost and magic skill from in-game settings, like v0.26 does, so everyone could make it fits his favorite magic overhaul (or main overhaul, OOO alters magic too). But that's not so good for those that don't play another magic mod or those that think their magic mod's values don't match charging spells, so I'll release several optional plugins with different settings regarding magic schools and mostly magic effects cost, so you could even choose to overwrite the changes an overhaul mod makes to magic by loading one of this plugins after it. To continue with the last example, if you want to play OOO but want a cheaper magic then simply load the appropiate optional plugin (after OOO, of course). I'm planning to make just a few but differenciated 'setting plugins'; to start off that'd be an easy, hard, offenssive, defensive and an own one (recomended, of course). Althought it may be funny that the easy setting makes magic easier for your enemies too :D Regarding the features it will have and it might have and regarding making other magic mods features compatible with this one, it's more or less the same like with spells, if I expect my chargeable spells to have some of the other mod's features better I do it myself, so I mean that it will include some of the most wanted/expected features from most popular mods, but it will include them in it's own rather than using other mods. That's not something that makes me feel really proud of the work I'll have to do, but sadly that's the only true option for this mod, because most of other magic mods work by replacing default spells, and therefor sentencing themselves to not being compatible with other mods that alter the same content and not being usable by mods like mine that in order to ignore default data uses their own spells don't mess with default spells. Anyway I've received some good suggestions both here and on the bethesda forums so now I have a decent list of decent features for a decent magic mod, IMO. This are the features I plan to add (some are taken from other mods, some came from diverse ideas and some of them are a mix of both): - dangerous magic (75% done): charging a spell for long might hurt you, but suffering from spellcasting might make your spell stronger, althought this is a riskful option because the chances for you to loose the spell increase each milisecond. This are really small chances that might range from 5 to 30% and are calculated only twice a second and not each frame. The penalties come in four levels, being them accumulative, and starting each one a second after the last one, at a minimum of 1 second of charge. The chances of suffering from one of this 'bad effects' (and therefor making the next time the check fails you go into next level of penalty) are calculated according to your skill and governing attribute, and it will increase the longer you hold the spell. First level (fisrt time a random percent check fails) you get a little fatigued and get blurred vision. Level 2 you're injuried because of the spell and looses health, blur effect increases. There's a small chance to control the spell and revert to level 1. Level 3, the spell really hurts and all your attributes are damaged. Blur effect increases. Level 4, that's the terminal point, here either the spell is casted automatically or is lost, and either it renders us exhausted or not so the results are unpredictable, but can some way be mastered with high stats, skills and experience. But the counterpart is that every fatigue, health and attribute point consumed this way are added to the spell power like if they were magicka spent (each attribute point counts 5), but that's only useful if the spell is finally being cast : ) - spell's toll (0.05% done): it seems a good idea allowing novices to experiment with magic, althought they should be adviced not to go too far from their capabilities as that could have really bad effects. Again with default spells replaced. My thought on this was to make it part of the dangerous magic feature, so a novice casting a journeyman spell would have an increased chance of being hurt by the spell and maybe loosing the charge, but this seems quite counterproductive precisely because novices at low level and stats will need to charge for longer, and therefor the inherent fatigue loss and the chances for suffering from some penalty (increased due to low skill level), plus the weak result due to a low skill level, seems all to be quite an appropiate toll to cast beyond your skill level, so my final thought was to make every chargeable spell available at novice level. That makes it less viable and less randomized but it's still a fair deal as there are some chanced for unpredicted effects (power increased at stats cost or merely bad effects). - spells being able to purchase (99.9% done): I had a problem with this and is that NPC shouldnt use chargeable spells (they're not smart enought to charge the spells, and therefor will use them with the last magnitude you cast each of them), but I wanted the spells being displayed in the spell purchase screen, so I've made a script that checks when you enter in a dialog with a NPC, and if that NPC has spells to sell the script checks wich kind of spells they have and adds the chargeable counterpart, and when the dialog is finished it adds back their original spells and removes the chargeable from him/her. It only replaces spells with only one effect and not being scripted, so it doesn't replace other mods's spells and it works for every NPC even from mods! And it doesn't alter a single NPC, it's all made within a script. I'm pretty happy with this solution so by now and unless s big bug arises that'll be the method. - multiple creatures summoning (-1% un-un-done): that has been requested a few times. While ago I received a message from a user that offered me his multi-summoning script so I didn't really take an in-depth look at this matter, but as I see this user doesn't show up I guess I'll have to read one of those tutorials on the wiki :P Anyway that's a feature I really want, so somehow that will be done. There's a lot of more features I'd want to see here, but being realistic, and considering how feasible they are and the efford they take compared to the gameplay result, I think this are the big features it has to have. Then there's the thing about certain spells, but that's almost covered (now there's about 80 different chargeable spells), but anyway suggestions about both certain features and/or spells are welcome.

Hey I know this is quite off of the topic but have you considered making a mod of her? She has copyright on her books but she doesn't have copyright on herself! Yeah make her the NPC suffering from all this! You could even make a quest for the mod, 'plagiarize and sue the fellow', you could invent a new story about a mages school and write a book with it and make you rich and famous and arrogant, and you could sue all the people in Tamriel and get revenues from it in form of fines and bribes! That's be amazing pal! :P

Sure. It's odd I've completed the SI main quest twice or three times and I can't remember of that spell, but I'll check it on the CS. Btw, for third time, have you already made the timelord race? And do you have any preferences about the place it teleports you to? To the latest exterior place you've been or rather make you still where you regenerate, or any other place?

Are u talking seriously? I mean, I understand that maybe making a snow mesh and giving it a white texture perhaps isn't difficult, but could you add it to the roofs of houses and buildings and stuff, and make it looks like fallen from the sky and not just placed in pre-defined positions? The problem with Oblivion is that if you modify a cell (a portion of landscape) you modify the whole cell, so if you add a pile of snow and a mod adds a door in that same cell you could only make one of both mods affect your game, and so if the last one added is the one with the snow pile you won't have that door, and that's a big pitty for mods that aim to re-do the whole map like this Tamriel's winter request. You can indeed mess with textures, replace default meshes and stuff, but not adding stuff to the landscape unless you want your mod replaces other mods or viceversa.

I've been doing some research with no success until now. Pluggy is unable to write into savegames and there's no ini parameter that could affect facial settings, as far as I know this is stored entirely into the savegame, so sincerely I see no way to make the "regeneration" process as described. That doesn't mean it can't be done, possibly I'm missing something as I'm still green at Oblivion scripting, simply it means I can't do it with my current knowledge, so if you want to apply some other drawback to the "regeneration" spell not involving changes in race/face that's ok I could write it quickly, otherwise better play some of that mods like this one that turns you into a ghost, as it seems more complete than simply healing you completely when you're at very low health.

Hey, now that I see this pic, how feasible is a replacement pack that replaces all grass textures with the same snow texture, all weathers by snow weather, and all the trees meshes by their leafless counterpart? That sounds pretty easy, doesn't?

Hey that face pack is amazing, but is it really needed? I think all values in the face gen go from -1000 to 1000, that's an easy random, the problem is as you said writtin into the savegame while in-game. But the game engine does it, doesn't? So it could be done some way. I think I've read somewhere Pluggy allows ini and save-game altering from in game but my knowledge at this is null. I'll check how this values are stored in the save-game file, meanwhile if someone could tell how to write there that'd be amazing, I can handle all the other side-effects like tracking skills and stats and restoring them afterwards, that's not the problem. @ kruddpm: hey have you already made the race? That'd be necessary to give them the spell, and what does the "sheogorath's protection" spell does? Could you list all what it's suposed to do this power, just in case that face trick isn't doable?

If you mean snow-covered buildings and landscapes and all this stuff I don't think that has been done, but if you only want to watch the snow falling from the sky then you could use some weather mod like this.

Hey man good that you're practicing moddeling, I hope we could see soon a mod of yours, but I think that zprospero original idea was to add only the minimum necessary custom-made meshes to make it light, and that's already covered I think, but who knows maybe if you have a good idea that fits the story or if you want to model some of the artifacts needed for the quest that'd be great, but not weapons and armors by now. Wait, there was a dagger involved, lets wait zprospero says if he wants a new model/texture for it.

yep, I think RunBatchScript should allow console functions but I haven't found one to alter face properties, and that mod you linked is for changing race, and here the only thing we want to change is the face, and preferably randomized, and not opening the char gen screen, as it's suposed to be an automatic action, nothing planned... btw, do you have made the base race? It will be necessary to add a check in the scripts so this power is only used by that race. Does someone know how the game engine handles the facial settings? Are they accessible/modifiable variables?

heya, the whole script is pretty easy, I could do it myself, but I don't know how to change the character face in-game, so if someone know a function to do so or at least a mod where this is done then I'd try it. Do you have any idea Slawter?

I agree, that'd be awesome! The same has been suggested about enchanted items, I hope someone with some knowledge about UI could make it. Wow what a combo, I'll try it out, no doubt.

I tell you what I've told him there: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=161481 To make it actually looks ok you're depending on NPC's routines, and that's a big mess if you want them to be the natural inhabitants of the city/town, otherwise you spawn special NPCs that will only stay in your inn or you make it all invisible, so you only see the outcome it gives each week. None of them sounds really good to me.

I don't know of a mod that makes you pay takes neither that allows you renting rooms, but there's a few mods that lets you run your bussiness (a shop, crops and not much more). About the taxes it could be relatively easy to make, but the guests part is more difficult, because you should give the NPCs some routine that include sleeping in your home, wich means altering the routine of several choosen NPCs and adding conditions to check if you're the owner AND if you want to rent a room that day. NPCs aren't intelligent, you know, they only do what they're told to do. Otherwise you could create the guests specially for that purpouse, making them appear at dusk and disappearing at dawn, or rather making a lot of travellers and/or homeless just to fill your rooms, but that could be quite silly. Another easier and cheaper way would be making all this process invisible, so you go to visit a house of yours and the housekeeper pays you once a month or once a week according to several factors with certain randomness, and he could even speak some random pre-def dialog, like "this week it has been a complete disaster, nobody came here", or "this week we have had two guests that have spent three days each one here", etc. But of course if you go to check the rooms they'll never be there.

Talos save the Queen! :D I just came across this post and I thought it might be interesting, but probably you should already know it. Is that the kind of scripting needed to alter anims/idle in-game? I'm asking just for curiosity, because I've read a few times about mods that adds new anims that replace some older one, but I guess it has to be possible to switch from one to another depending on the weapon you have equiped. Well it's just to get a glimpse of how this works, in the end the important thing is the result and not the procedure :)

One for vain people: A spell called Narcissim with 'Charm 100 on Self' as a visible effect, and when you cast it it makes your face become the ugliest thing on earth and your Personality goes down to 0, and then the spell is removed from your inventory. There's a mod that makes Emperor be really ugly, that face would fit the spell.

hi there, I came to see how's that progressing so far and I've realised I've get lost somewhere in this story, and this starts to be a big thread to read all over (once again) so I thought it'd be nice if either you zprospero or krimzin could write a summary of both the past history and quest storyline. I'll understand you don't need such a summary so if you aren't willing to write it and you don't care I'll write it myself with all the imprecisions and innaccuracies from such a TES lore ignorant like me :P Right now I have a few questions/considerations about the course the story is taking, perhaps some has been explained before, if so then I ask you please excuse me because I don't get them: 1 - Tharn's Illusion: How is that finaly the player 'sees beyond' Jagar Tharn illusion? Sincerely, I don't think a simple scroll from Ealdor has to break the enchantment (neither should allow the player to see). By wich mean can Ealdor bypass Tharn's magic? Is it Ealdor more powerful than Jagar Tharn? I don't think so, neither I think that this was simply an illusion spell, it's suposed to have deceived arch-mage Traven and all the mages in the IC, perhaps even Uriel Septim trusted that vision otherwise he could told you that, don't you think?, so perhaps is the player powerful enought to counter that enchantment/don't be affected by it? I'd make that Ealdor gives you some kind of quest to obtain something (a stone, glass, metal, etc, or go to perform some ritual) to obtain the ability to see the true nature of the place. Perhaps this could be focused otherwise, making Jagar Tharn spirit and all that demons only exist in a "spiritual" plane overlaping to the real one, so he's not present in body but his spirit reigns the palace. This way he woudn't need to take over a body, but you'd still need a battlemage hearth. 2 - Ocatto's hearth/Tharn's body: I know EG team would like to see Ocatto untouched but really I see it quite difficult to extirpate him his hearth and afterwards make like if nothing happened. I've got an idea but perhaps it's too crazy and it's too much of the same, but since you need his hearth, and no human being can live witouth his hearth (not even vampires! It'd be funny make Ocatto become a vampire just because we needed his hearth), but you could kill him, extirpate his hearth, then place a black soul gem or some other un/holy item in it's place and cast some macabre ritual to revive him. And then make him looks very old and his skin turned to a greener note depending on how long he had been dead. But for the rest he could act normally, and it'd be even quite logical he remembers nothing from while he was dead neither the moment before of his death. It's not that I don't like the possession stuff, simply that the hearth thing wasn't covered, but that's a suggestion only. 3 - Main storyline: It seems that evey idea here aims higher than the last one, and there's nothing wrong about that, but simply that threats are growing in power and this no longer seems a quest a level 5 character could start. Moreover the apparition of Tharn seems to be the center of the action now and compared to this the adventures of Ealdor in his ascension seems quite irrelevant for the Champion of Cyrodiil that once again will save the world from a terrible threat. Again, nothing absolutely wrong about it, but IMO this diverts the player from the original story presented in this mod. I'm not talking about doping Tharn from the story, simply I'm telling I think you should take special care planning his apparition. 4 - Tempo: perhaps it's soon yet to talk about the story's tempo but as I've said above it seems to me that things are growing bigger and bigger, and also the duel with Tharn sounds like an epic thing, but I really wouldn't like it being 'more epic' than the ascension of Ealdor itself or a fight agains a deadra if this finally occurs. You can't simply saturate the story with epic moments as this would make no difference between them (I'm not saying you're already doing so!) and there's to be high-intensity and low-intensity moments, just to make the difference. So my personal suggest here is that if the fight against Jagar Tharn has to be somehow the climax of the story then make it has a longer prelude, some big crescendo before the final moment and not just to come, see and win. I know the palace doesn't allow for much room for this kind of 'adventuring', but considering you're talking about killing him with a magical dagger perhaps the big quest is to find that dagger and the palace is just the boss room, but then once again, it should be in a way that doesn't allow the player to retreat to a safe place. To make it interesting, perhaps Ealdor doesn't know that Ocatto is possessed by Jagar Tharn, so you discover this when you attempt to kill him in bed, in fact you kill him but then you release Tharn's spirit and thus the whole 'illusory reality' with demons and so. This way you can make each quest Ealdor gives to you looks harder than the latest one but in the end they become harder than intended/announced, so this allow for some degree of suspense (you were sent to kill a sleeping man and ended up fighting Jagar Tharn so now that Ealdor sends you to a dangerous quest you're fearing the worst when maybe that is one of the easy quests). @ Krimzin: hey man you're doing a good work on this, keep it up! but please don't make Tharn tells you the whole reasoning and explanation for his deeds, I always find quite pathetic when the bad guy tells all this things before the final battle, it's like they're saying they're going to die XD Well, these are just my thoughts, you know you can do with them what you want. Maybe there are more questions than suggestions but don't take it like I'm questioning the story, I just want to give you something to think about - or something to write about if you've already thought about it! :)

Don't off-topic please, and try to be concise, there are a few requests here. I don't think there's a single mod that does all this, but you might want to try some CM companions to act as recruits, they'll obey you.

This comment was absolutely unnecessary. And you don't need 3D Studio Max to moddel out your meshes for Oblivion, people here uses Blender, I think the full version is freeware. Oh about that underwater city, it's perfectly doable, good luck with it.

hey thanks for the tips, I think I'm gonna track getCrosshairRef because I need to run code for a few seconds. But it sounds to me quite a waste of code as this function has to run constantly on gameMode to be used just a few times a conversation is started, but yeah it solves my problem so by now that's the way to go. Oh I forgot to mention, I want to use this when the player try to buy a spell, perhaps once in the spell barter screen there's a way to get the owner of the spells? I guess if I could change them once the screen is open.

Althought it's technically possible, it has never been put to practice due to it's complexity, wich should give you an idea of how hard is this to achieve it with the Oblivion engine. It has been asked quite a few times already. So, in short, don't expect this feature in Oblivion.

Ok, let's say I want to track when player starts a dialog with a NPC and I don't want to add an object script that runs 'onActivate' to every NPC for compatibility (because if I add a script to an object I'm moddifying that object, right?), so what I want is to track on player MenuMode 1009 (dialog), but then I need to retrieve the NPC reference for the script (I need to find out wich NPC the player is talking to!). Is there any feasible workaround for this (except tracking every NPC reference in that cell and calc later distance to the player or such a bizarre approach)? If that's not feasible, is there any way I could add a script in-game to a NPC (not token scripts, but rather scripts attached to the NPC ref itself so I can run an 'onActivate' block)? Any help is much appreciated as I'm pretty lost here.

Oh sry man I wasn't really following this thread and on a first glimpse I don't get what's that script suposed to do nor how it's called, but it seems you've got a good tip there, let me know if that didn't worked for you and I might give it a try, but I might not be quick, the unfinnished projects pile is growing faster than I can attend it.

It's not exactly what you're asking but you might want to take a look at this mod: Shady Lane. Take care in there or you may end up completely wasted :P

If you want to know if certain actor is being affected by a specific spell then it is: reference.IsSpellTarget spellID If you want to know simply if it's being affected by certain magic effect (shield, fortify strenght, etc), then: reference.HasMagicEffect MagicEffectID You can get the spellID from the CS, and the magicEffectID from here. Good luck!