Matth85

The only problem I can think if, is making it clean. It would consist of a lot of scripts, and a lot of global values. Making it all work nicely together might be problematic. But again, it does not seem like there are enough people around to really care, so I will hold this idea for another TES game.

I take it the forum have died out. Okay then. I'll save this project for the next TES game.

I still need some opinions regarding the 2 questions I asked :/ 1) Force the lore/history down the player through the quest, or let majority of the story be through optional stuff/side quests/books. 2) Have it be a "grindy" quest, with lots of random chances involved. Making you really work for your weapons. Or simply do is Skyrim style: Quest - kill - loot. Nobody got any input?

Nothing?

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7343/q18e.png Hey all! I am currently working on a series of quests, related to my 2 released sword mods. It's quite a lot, to be honest, so I need some help before I start digging in on scripting. First off, Would you like to be spoon fed the story, or keep the juicy details in in-game books and what-not? Letting the interested get the lore, and story, while everybody else can just rush to get the weapons. Second, how much work would you like to put into a sword, or two? The idea is to make this feel "legendary" and make you feel like you gain them. I speak of adapting the MMO-kind-of system. Random chance for a piece, random chance for a note, random placement of an item inside a random dungeon. Let's say I got 2 options, which one would people go with? 1) Little random, just named enemies. Done rather quickly. You move on, done. 2) Random loot chance. Lots of exploration and work. The rest of the post is info on what I plan to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just to set the stage, let me explain what the deal is, and what you gain: Reward: 2 swords. Tiamat - Enchantement consist of you gainaing health on excecution, chance to fear the enemies on hit and every kill gains you a attack speed, and armor-penetration, buff for a few seconds. Stacks a few time. Anghelm - Enchantement consist of a chance to drain magicka, and as the magicka is drained the enemy loses health. The wielder also gets a magicka buff. Considering other bonuses if the player have 100 in a magic school. Short on the story: Part 1: Player finds pieces, can only gain 1 sword. Player finds one of the brother, does a quest for him, gain a "Power Essence( a gem ) Player finds a way to reforge the ancient sword. Player gains the forged blade, and enters a trial to use fuse his/her power with the power essence. Players gains the enchanted weapon and Player House( Anghelm) or Companion (Tiamat) Part 2 ( Not complete. Depends if I ever get done Part 1): Player follows the story to gain the other sword. Moving the plot forwards a little. Part 3: Player helps the brothers, story ends, player get a small permanent buff. What I seek to do is making the story focus on the brother and their swords, and make the player really feel like the swords are powerful, yet not game-breaking. My goal is also to keep it lore-friendly, so i will work on adapting it more towards the lore. Most of the story involving the brothers will be found in game books, and through optional NPCs, as they are quite the mystery! What I want to do: - Give my 2 swords a story. - A series of quests. - 1 Companion, Blood Mage/Battlemage and/or gaining a Player Home - Let the player "visit" a small area of Coldharbour. Want to capture the feel of it as well. - Custom enchantements for the weapons. - Give certain NPCs the ability to make the weapons 1h or 2h, or to take off the enchantment. More freedom for the player. - Custom effects. A lot based om "Blood magic" for the Tiamat questline, and "Pure, blue, elvish, magic" for Anghelm. Well, let's see what happens! For now I just need to know how much work people would actually like to put into a quest for "legendary" weapons. Updates ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The scattered pieces of the swords. As of now planned to be divided into 3, + a gem. I might work the texture a little too, to make it look more "out of order" http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/8028/astf.png Matth

Everybody is racist. It's how it works. And he would probably send help because bretons are said to be fantastic battlemages, making them perfect for fighting the Thalmor mages. Also, did you just try to dismiss the claim he is racist by the simple idea of him sending a letter? Did you tae into consideration how he generally acts? So yes, he is quite the racist. However, everybody are. It is not weird at all consider they ARE different races with DIFFERENT strength, history and have a story of being a pain in the ass of each other. That said, most of us "anti-Stormcloak" are not blaming him for being racist per se, but more because he is short-sighted and generally a tool. His voice is awesome though-

It all depends how long you plan to play, and if you want some perk-overhaul mod. This is also ALL personal opinions. Like every RPG ever made. It's about what you want to feel like being. A strong warrior? A fierce battlemage? A humbe Mage? A dangerous trickster? You name it! How I percieve it: Battlemage: offers a ton of fun. Especially with mods such as SPERG. Allowing for some fun battlemage moves, such as having a 20% chance to make enemies take 300% fire damage for the next 4 seconds, and a 5% chance to shoot a second spell of your previous used spell, instantly. You also get to enjoy both worlds. Master level magic effects? Sure. 2 Dremora Lords? No problems. Watch your enemies kill each other? Aw yeah! Be unkillable by mages? You bet! Use that legendary Dawnbreaker, and whatever cool armor/shield you want? Of course! Though it is pretty boring early on. There is no synergy between the 2 combat style early to mid game. You most likely run around as a warrior, who cast flame to deplet the magicka for levelling. Personally I sit at my 220 hour mark, on this particular character of mine. No mods used, not before now. My character simply feels powerful! Warrior: They got it quite good now. You start of good, you get better mid-game, you murder everything in the end. Though it is rather amusing to cut of enemies head with whatever sword I have at hand. Dual wield, 2 handed or slapping a shield on. The possibilites are endless! My warrior was a no-magic user, and focused heavily on shouts and alchemy. It was extremely fun mid-game! The fun stopped towards the end game, where enemies either took 3-trillion hits to murder, or I could kill too fast. Pure Mage: Challenging, but a little fun. A pain in the start, extremely fun in the middle, and a disaster in the end. This is with no mods though. In the beginning you go no magicka to cast these beautiful spells. In the middle it was all out tactical. Cast alteration spells before combat, ward off the spells, then lob fire bolts until stuff died! In the end you do no damage at all. Of course, this is fixed with mods. Archer: Well, I don't like it. Yes, sure, it is fun to 1-hit sneak kill. But that got bored after under 10 houres for me. Going no-sneak-archer is not my thing either. Albeit fun in the end, when you can actually do stuff -- especially with crossbow. The start of the game is a pain. Shoot - run for your life until your companion takes aggro, or go somewhere the bandit can't go, and lob arrows. Cheap. So, personally. Fun rating: Battlemage - So varied, so strong. I always play battlemage. They feel powerfull, they let you really enjoy both magic and melee. Takes time to play tough, a lot of skills need to get to a decent level before things become fun! Pure Warrior - Hey, chopping heads and stabbing dragons is fun! Easy all around, though needs Smithing towards the end to keep the flow going. Pure Mage - Fun at some points. Frustrating at the rest. Fixed with mods, though I still take a Battlemage over a pure mage. Same spells, more choices. Any kind of Archer - If I can't lay down traps and kite, archery is not fun in my humble opinoon. So no fun if you ask me. Take this as you want. Matth

Good god, that sounds complicated! :p I guess I'll start hitting that wall once i get to it. Thanks!

Hey all! So, as I am about to release my second sword, I plan to start making a quest around them. In short, it consist of certain enemies having a certain chance of finding certain pieces of certain swords. Now, what I wonder is: How would I go about doing that? Say a dragon drop the hilt. Easy enough, add it to the list. However, how can I make sure the dragon will only drop 1 hilt, then never again? Question 2: Can I add stuff to the drop/loot list via a script? Say one sword vampiric. Could I add a script that would only let pieces of it drop if the player is a vampire? Also limiting the player for using the weapon unless they are a vampire? My scripting knowledge is.. well, non-existing. Though this all seem possible in my head, but I would love a little clarification :) Thanks! Matth

Yeah, no answer just ended in me making something else out of it. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/46707/? So yeah, thats what happens when I get bored :P

To add further: Every model got a UVW set. UVW is the 3d coordinates to your 3d model( X,Y,Z). By removing part of the model, you remove the UVW of those polygons. That does not alter anything else. By adding new geometry, you need to edit the UVW for the new polygons. If you start stretching the mesh, you also need to work with the UVW again. Though a relax is all that is required at that point. Even simple things as welding some verts can do all kind of weirdness. So to your question: - Yes, you can apply the vanilla texture to a vanilla armor if you removed certain parts. No work required. - However, if you add new things, or stretch too much, you should fix the UVW. Easy fix though. Matth

This should be in Mod Request sub forum. Also, you are not very specific. There are, literately, hundreds of armors in WoW. There is everything from dark gloomy, to slightly realistic, to you being a walking Tesla core with WAY too big shoulders that spit lightning of doom-- so yeah. You should also add pictures of what you want. Think of it like this: - Armor takes a LONG time to make. - The few of us who can model, got our own ideas. We are not idea-less creatures that choose a creative hobby. - The last few days there have been what, 5 requests for armors? - It's hard to take anybody serious if they are all new, no profile picture, 1 post. * Let me explain -- if I make something for somebody, I expect them to be more dedicated to the project than I am. Cheers, Matth

I am not a scripter, and did only basic stuff in Oblivion, so don't quote me on this. But couldn't you just: - Have door locked with a key. - Add an activator at the front of the door. - Add a script to the activator, which will react once the player cast said shout. - Open door. The only problem there, as I can see, is to recognize what the player does. It is possible, of course, though I got no idea how. It's what I can think of at least :) Matth

http://www.elderscrolls.com/daggerfall/ And yes, they are free.

Of course it is! There are a few ways to do it. It all depends on whhat kind of mesh we speak of here. - For the object itself, all you need to do is export it as a .nif. There are plugins for this. - The textures goes as .dds. files. Also note that the specularity map will be found at the Normals alpha channel. So, at the most basic, you need: Difuse and Normals with alpha. For metal you'd also want some kind of reflection, or environment, map. - Get Nifskope. - For starters, simply open a similar mesh to what you got, and import your mesh into the same .nif file. Then delete the original mesh. Example: 1) Make a sword. Import Iron sword nif file from the BSA files -- which you unpack. Google it. Try to match your sword with the iron one. Especially the handle. 2) Open the Iron sword NIF file. Open your sword .nif. Copy and paste the mesh from your nif to the iron sword one. Delete the mesh at the iron sword one. 3) Save as something new. "Yoursword.nif". 4) Place at Data/Meshes/*whatever*. Also place Textures at "Data/Textures/*Whatever*" 5) In the Ck, find the Iron Sword, then edit the mesh is uses to your mod. 6) Place it somewhere, then save your mod. As you get better at it, you don't actually need to do half otf the things above. You simply need to make sure the pivot is at your handle, and the weapon is at 0,0,0. Then simply find the functions inside Nifskope itself. I tend to do that, but it requires knowledge of Nifskope. - If you talk about statics you can do it the same way. However, for most static all you need to do is make a collision, then link it to the mesh. I got no idea how you do that in Blender, so you'll better google it. But it's quite simple. - Armors are a little different. You would do the same as you did with the weapon, but you might need to tweak the rig. I do not recommend this at start. Rigging is no fun! So yeah, it's quite easy. The biggest problem you will bump into is Nifskope. You should try to learn some of the functions inside it by studying models allready made. It will save your skin actually knowing what the different things does. If unsure, there are tons of tutorials on the net about it. Note: There are probably a hundred tutorials about it, so I am not going get into details. But a little check-list for you: - Import and export out of Blender. - BSA unpacking. - Nifskope, and nifs - Different texture maps. Google these things, and you're good to go.

TIps? I got some great tips. If you've played Skyrim, remember this: - Give it a real try. Frankly, playing the earliest games is weird at the start. That goes for any games really ( except legend of zelda). However, give it a real try, and the graphic stops meaning anything. 2 ezamples: 1. I played Daggerfall last year. Now, the first hour was me strugglign in the first dungeon and thinking to myself: "This sucks o.O". However, the following 60 houres I spent in the game. Perfecting my character. Today I'd rank it over even Morrowind in terms of me having fun. But that is becasue I have yet to give Morrowind a real try :p 2. I played Mass Effect 1 last year as well. Been playing the 2 other part of the serie. The fitst 2 houres were me sitting and wanting to throw it off. 4-playthroughs after, ending with a pure 100% completion, I can say it is the best game in the trilogy. - Focus on the gameplay, and the positive, rather than what you are used to. Playing Oblivion today, I feel crippled without the ability to sprint. However, as soon as I hit 100 athletic, I can safely say I didn't miss it so much anymore. - Be prepared for bugs and misbehaving. one of the earlier games are made for the newest OS versions. This can cause the weirdest issues. Arena and Daggerfall are natural full of bugs, so spam that save button! Morrowind and Oblivion works okay, but there are quite the weird bugs that can happen using WIndows 7. Safe often! - Try to makea legacy. I know I did. Play Arena, make a Breton called "Bob Merrington", and in Daggerfall you play a "Joe Merrington", and keep it going. Or play a High Elf who lives quite long. I did that. My Battlemage High Elf went from Arena, and is now having his fun in Skyrim. Quite the old fellow. - Lastly, get the story! Playing Arena, Daggerfall and even Morrowind is of no use if you do not care about the story. If you havn't played them before, little will get you to keep playing. If you want to play the story all out, it's a perfect motivation! Warning: Arena and Daggerfall can, and will, make you rage. I was once stuck in a dungeon for 6 -- yes, 6! -- houres. I manages to find the first 4 secret rooms of the god damn dungeon the first couple of houres, but the last one.. was very hidden >.< Never been so frustrated in my life :p I wish you good luck!

Creating spells in earlier games was never "lore friendly", and got nothing to do with what is possible to mortals in the universe. Yes, I could create a spell as well that would murder anything. Heck, in Daggerfall I created a spell which killed everything around me, healed me, returned my mana and trained every spell school. I was a level 20 high elf, being nothing but a decent mage. The reason they removed it was to try and fix it. Of course, It wasn't the best choice just to remove it, but I assume they ran out of time to find something better. Also add the fact your only way of magic learning in Skyrim is a piece of ruin with about 10 people. Magic is powerful, but not to the point you could cast a meteor down just by making your own spell. It would require a lot more of you than a soul gem and a magic level. But that is a discussion of "lore vs not lore", to be honest. Arguing that, I might as well say my old Nord Warrior was a god, since he used the alchemy, smithing and enchanting to boost his damage to 2-shot Alduin. In reality, he was nothing but a decent warrior. not standing a toe against the more battle-hardened warriors. TL;DR: Creating spell was weird. You could become too freaking powerful. Magic was never "Dumbed down", it was balanced. They wanted all 3 aspects of combat to stand equal, not having meteors left and right. Of course, they missed slightly, but that's okay -- it's time the Warriors can be a little bit too strong.

Scrapped together a base mesh, is this somewhat the kind of shape you want? http://imageshack.us/f/826/i9k9.jpg/ If yes -- I can probably take the time to fiinish it. If no - i'll scrap it. Swords were a lot more boring than I remembered :p oh well Matth

Fair enough. Note: My satement was never that 3k polygons will hit you system. My statement was that 3k, instead of 1, polygon is not worth the little difference in appearance. That is not an opinion, but a fact. Wether or not you can take the hit, or have spent more polygons, is irrelevant. 3k polygons are 3000 times more than required for that piece. That's a lot. Again, I am not here to tell you what to do, or how to do it. Simply stating what is true. For a study, or for your own amusement, these kind of things are nothing but cool. You learn, and learn techniques for further down the road. I merely combat the statement "It doesn't hit the performance!" but saying: "Yes, it does, and I can prove it". Sorry to be cluttering this topic with this. I'll take my leave, before somebody decides they really want to discuss facts. :) Matth

Hm.. i havn't done a sword in a while. I can give it a go, though not promising anything. It all depends if I get bored or not :p Matth

Though I respect that it's, to a deegree, a subject of personal prefference, when it comes to this. However, it is a waste of polygon. No matter how you want to look at it. 20 x 3k = 60k polygons. Versus. 20 Polygons. One will hurt the performance, one will not. HOWEVER, it isn't that important when you don't work with a polygon count or really care about optimization. As a study, it's all nice and dandy, or for a picture it's nice. For a Real Time Gameplay, it's not worth it. The Normals map will do it for you, and the only way to tell the different is if the player decides to throw his face at the wall at every possible angle, to see it's fake. Again, it's all good to do. But it does hit performance, and it is a waste. The matter of how much depends how much you do it, but it's there. It's not even a question. Just wanted to throw it out there. Not trying to argue or anything, but I simply can't let the "No performance hit!" or "It's not a waste of polygons!" flow.

Not really what you are looking for, but I got this hat model I dabbled together in under an hour, from some time ago. It could be fitted, and then adding a feather, to fit this, I guess. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/2qpz.jpg/ Matth

Hmm... As far as I know, it could. Is the goal to have a brand new animation effect on a certain weapon? It might be a little tricky. Just because of the way nifskope handles animations. Not having nifskope in front of me, and not having dabbled in it since Oblivion, I assume you might need to script it. To call for a animation change once that weapon type is equipped. At least in Oblivion it worked like this: There were 2 pre-defined animation sets within the CK: WeaponSide and WeaponBack. Then inside the CS you could set it from 1h to 2h. There were no other way to get a predefined animation set for it. The workaround would be a script that activated the new set of animations. Though that is beyond my knowledge. I stopped with animations in Oblivion. It became too much of a hazzle with this engine :) Matth

Ah, now I got you! You simply need to change the animation inside Nifskope to the 2 handed one for that model. Then inside the CK you simply choose the 2 handed animations. Currently rather busy, so I can't help you out. But I'll be back in a few houres, and can give more assistance if nobody else is around :) If nothing else, try to google a bit. Matth

Glad I could help :) Best of luck!