danshive

You could check his inventory by using console commands. Step by step (as I have no idea how familiar you are with console commands): While facing Tolfdir, type "~". Click on Tolfdir. A code should appear on screen when you do, like 0003DEDA, but different (I have NO idea what, if anything, 0003DEDA matches). Type "inv", and hit enter. His entire inventory should be listed, along with with some additional data. Use the page up and page down buttons on your keyboard to navigate the results if there's more than what's initially on screen. Type "~" again to exit the console command menu.

One thing I'd really like to do is modify an actor's weight value if buffing or debuffing them, but I'm starting to suspect that's not going to work all that well given the apparent lack of a way to get a return value on an actor's current weight. The only weight command is "setnpcweight (snpcw) 1-100", and "getav weight" returns "weight" as an invalid actor value. That doesn't really surprise me that much, as weight wouldn't be an "actor value" from the game's perspective. Those are things that are more functional and less cosmetic. Nonetheless, it's something I'd like to be able to dynamically change and then undo.

Bottom line: Does anybody know a way to detect an actor's weight? Why I care: I think it would be cool if spells and effects that affect strength and/or stamina reflected that in the character models, and that much looks like it will be pretty easy. "snpcw 1-100" makes it easy to make an NPC look feeble or strong. The problem is that these are temporary boosts, and the script would presumably require the original weight value to undo the weight change. I already tried "getav weight" and was told that "weight" was not a valid option. This is a really minor thing I'd like to do, of course, but it would make certain potential abilities feel more genuine to me.

I, too, am a mage, and uncertain of how many points to put in health. I don't seem to need any boosts to health until a warrior gets up close, and then... OW. Of course, if they never GET close, I'm golden, so I'm not sure.

Earlier today, I was hoping to raise my alteration a bit, and I figured I'd use Detect Life as I walked around to boost it as I went. I was in a town as I did it, and my skill level almost immediately went up. I used it again, and the same thing happened. I quickly figured out that the number of life readings being read determines how much of a boost to the skill using the spell gives. If you have a lot of magicka and a fast magicka regeneration rate, one can go to a highly populated safe area and get spell points in Alteration somewhat ridiculously fast. I've been pretty much putting all my points into Magicka and wearing equipment that speeds up the regen, and for a while, simply emptying my magicka bar with the spell would add a skill point each time. That didn't last forever, but it was still very fast. Just thought I'd share. I don't THINK this has been brought up yet on these forums yet (did a quick search), but if it has, my apologies.

I would need to experiment to see what the full potential would be. I fully admit to it *mostly* being for the novelty, but at the same time, I'd like it to fit the game and not be overpowered. Or if a spell IS overpowered, at least have that in an optional separate mod. There are definite trade-offs between illusion, however, such as enemies in altered states effectively being unharmed by whatever damage their transformed state takes (this is a natural side effect of using disable/enable for the transformation), the possibility to make an enemy more powerful before putting them into a frenzy, etc. One of the very first spells I really want to try and see how well it works, however, is nothing like anything in Illusion, and that's a horse transformation spell with a recurring duration so long as you stay on the "horse". It's a spell I could have used earlier today, actually, when escorting this really useless non-essential guy to a specific location. No damage done to him as a horse would have carried back to his human form, and I could have used him to get there faster without having to own a horse. It's silly and bizarre, but it would have made the task easier. It could also be an alternative to ever buying a horse, relying on transformed fauna and low-level NPCs who look at you funny to quickly reach destinations without fast travel. It's sort of a jerk move on the part of the spell caster, but this is the sort of messed up things I see spell casters doing, and would lend credence to all the characters who are wary of magic users (not that they really needed another reason). Of course, a slightly less silly and bizarre spell to get the same results would be a conjured horse, but I see that sort of thing as being a higher level deal due to fewer drawbacks (such as not having to transform anything to get a horse).

The Wabbajack is what made me realize that not only should these spells be possible, but they should be relatively easy to make. The code's basically already in the game. It just has to be understood and modified to suit the desired results. As such, the challenge of the transformation spells is not making them, but keeping them balanced.

Level limitations would definitely be necessary, which is another reason the whole Thematic / Play Balance thing butts heads. Level limitation boosts are neatly built in to Illusion perks and could translate neatly in various ways to the transformation spells. I'm considering making it sort of a half-breed, technically being Alteration but benefiting in various ways from Illusion perks, making it a skill set intended for a particular kind of Mage assuming they want to really make use of it in combat. Who it can affect would benefit from the illusion perks while costs and duration would benefits from Alteration perks. That approach, however, would create the requirement of making certain the transformation spells were worth the player's time beyond the novelty of it all. Of course, one way to do THAT is to add spells that are variations on the beast form power, but I suspect those are fairly limited. If it IS possible to morph the player into other things and have it actually work, though... well, there's all SORTS of crazy potential there.

Well, yes, I mentioned the similarities. There are key differences, however. For example, when casting fury, you get a frenzied opponent who is exactly the same, but frenzied. With one of the spells I have in mind, they would turn into a cave bear, which might be weaker or stronger than they were before, and restricted to melee attacks. The frenzied character would also return to normal unharmed from the ordeal, which is in and of itself a trade off when compared to the fury spell.

When the creation kit comes out, I'm scheming to add a whole set of spells that allow for the transforming of enemies. Temporarily turn a foe into a rabbit, a rabbit into a bear, a villager into a troll, you get the idea. While the effects would vary, most of the transformations, in theory, would have a set duration and a set amount of damage they can take before morphing back. Based on certain things currently within the default game, that, at least, should be pretty easy to code. Turning someone into a horse one can actually ride or something might be trickier, but that's beside my current point. I have a goal, however, of having these spells be balanced and actually fit game play as opposed to a "nothing can touch me because I'll just turn them into rabbits" sort of thing. I also want them to fit thematically, which is where I've run into a bit of a contradiction. Thematically, I'm thinking the spell set most appropriate for these abilities would be Alteration, but from a playing standpoint, the benefits most resemble Illusion. Turning someone into something that's passive, frightened or aggressive translates pretty naturally to the Illusion spells Calm, Fear and Fury, respectively. They have their own pros and cons, but the combat scenarios you would use these transformation spells during are pretty close to the ones you'd use those Illusion spells during. So basically, I'm concerned about making Alteration overpowered, and am contemplating how to make these spells fit best in the world of Skryim. Any thoughts? SIDE NOTE! Best I can deduce, NPC transforming makes use of disable and enable commands. This has been all but confirmed by a glitch I've encountered with the guards in solitude who cannot be disabled for some reason. Using the only current in-game method of transforming people (that I know of), the transformation effectively acts like a summon because the guards remain even as their "transformation" spawns in. In fact, when the summon vanishes, I think a copy of the guard appears. I say "think" because the guards didn't appreciate this behavior and things were, um, hectic. I might have died shortly after by way of arrow to the face. Reports vary.

Clairvoyance spell. Boo-yah.

You can buy most books from teachers, but not all of them right away. It's my understanding that they start getting new books based on how high your skills in those areas are, like when you have x destruction they will start selling y destruction spell. So basically, if you want more powerful spells, build up those skill points. Also be sure to loot spellcaster bodies for spellbooks, as they will sometimes have them.

I use this search a lot, but I put the text to look for in quotations. Like Help "rabbit" 4 I used this earlier today to get the code to use placeatme to generate a rabbit to see what would happen when they're furied.

Undead spell casters and those bug things in the dwarven mines have served me well as zombies, especially when dual casting the necromancy. As for destruction, this game used to feel a little too hard for me, so I turned down the difficulty. It's back up again after learning the adept combat spells. Those seem to wreck everything's day. As for summoning bunnies, I cast fury on one, and they definitely do not have attack animations. They furiously charge at you and THEN! They just sit there. Looking MENACING. I'm hoping it's possible to mod in an attack for them regardless, as I do so much want to warn my enemies that it is no ordinary rabbit.

I've designed some custom weapons and items that I'd be interested in sharing here at the Nexus, but I wish to avoid conflicting with other people's mods when putting the items in game for people to find. If I add a container somewhere in a cell, will that always conflict with any other mods that modify that cell, or only if I just happen to put the container in the same spot? Are there recommended places to put such items in mods, and is there anything else I should keep in mind when deciding where to put things?

Does anyone know how to make child characters targetable with VATS? I'm not interested in the killable children mod, but it's always bugged me that you can't target the kids in the game in VATs. I tend to use VATs as much to find people as I do to shoot things, and the kids are invisible to it. If nothing else, it would potentially be helpful when re-finding that damn mayor of little lamplight. I wish he'd stay put >_< It's apparently possible to make them targetable using just an .esp file, but the obvious solution (uncheck the "child" checkbox in the child races) doesn't seem to work. Any suggestions?

The purposes that spring to mind are enemies that summon more enemies, the ability to summon a temporary ally, and "transforming" one NPC into another (kill one actor, such as a raider, with an effect that makes them vanish and replace them with another, like a deathclaw). The easiest ways I've found to ensure that they go away are to make such summoned things delete themselves immediately upon dying and having them spawn with a limited life span (i.e. onload cast "you will be dealt 6000 damage a minute from now" enchantment on self). In some cases, however, it just feels more appropriate for them to stick around for at least as long as the player remains in the cell, or possibly longer, and not instantly vanish upon death. Mostly, I just want them to naturally go away after a reasonable amount of in-game time, and I want to ensure that it's taken care of without having to be overly blunt about it. While it's the best choice in some cases, it can be hurtful to immersion to have NPC's just vanish from existence while the player is looking right at them. EDIT: I didn't elaborate to this extent earlier in part because I saw this as boiling down to a "yes or no" answer. I was confused about how one determines whether a cell "resets" or not, and didn't know that I should be checking encounter zones instead. That's what I meant when I posted about knowing how to test it. I didn't know where the no-reset areas were or how to find them via the GECK, and now I do. Still haven't tested it out, however ^^:

You should, in theory, be able to edit the race settings for ghouls to make them less ghoulish. This will create compatibility issues with any other mods that modify races, however, and would require you to extract the textures and meshes from the BSA. I don't have time right now to explain that, but it can be done using the FOMM. It's also possible to just go into the GECK, select the ghouls section under NPC, and change their races one by one. As for the Feral ghouls, replacing them is a lot trickier because they are creatures with their own creature model settings. I'm not sure how one would successfully replace their models, but you could change leveled creature lists so it's raiders that you'll encounter instead. That's a looooot of editing, however. I think the easiest solution is to just say "ew" and put up with the ghouls... or only edit the ones in Gomorrah o_O;

Okay, I've figured out how to test this and will do so later. I will post the results once I do in case anyone is actually interested ^^;

Wait, what? What "don't talk"? I replied to your post, and I have no private messages, so when didn't I talk to you? My reply expressed confusion, but that's because I was confused. I'm still confused. I have no idea if "onreset" always applies or not, or what difference my purpose for using "placeatme" makes to onreset.

If my goal for a piece of "armor" isn't wearing it, but providing the player with an infinitely reusable ability via an "onequip" block, which biped object should I assign to the equipment to avoid potential error messages? My goal is to not conflict with anything, and while that's easy to do with Vanilla Fallout 3, I'm not sure what's commonly used with mods around here. Is this even really a concern beyond the GECK complaining about it?

I don't understand how my reasons for creating the NPC's affect this. I'm just trying to determine if there are any cells in the game where such NPC's won't be removed by onreset, and I'm hoping to not have to test this cell by cell until I find (or don't find any) where such a situation applies ^^;

Awesome! Thank you. I promise not to abuse this knowledge. ... *makes all radroaches level 30*

I'm having trouble finding any information on changing how much XP an opponent is worth. I expect any given enemy is worth a set amount of XP as opposed to just being able to insert a number of one's choosing, but I'm not sure how to ensure that an enemy counts as a tough or weak opponent from an XP perspective. I made a killer mole rat with 500 HP that summons additional mole rats, and I think killing it ought to be worth more than 6 xp.

I intend to use the "placeatme" function for nefarious purposes, but I don't want to bloat the ever-loving heck out of people's save games with summoned NPCs. My plan to prevent such bloating is to make it so all summoned NPCs have scripts with "onReset" blocks that disable and mark them for deletion, effectively removing them 3 in-game days later. I've heard, however, that not all cells behave the same way when it comes to resetting, so what I'm wondering is this: is my current OnReset countermeasure enough, or do I need to take additional steps to ensure that these summoned NPCs don't become permanent fixtures on people's save files?