kromey

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long absence, and lack of any update in... ugh, much longer than I want to think about right now. I can see that this thread is still immensely popular, and that there's still a lot of interest in this mod. This is awesome, and I thank you all, but it makes this announcement that much more difficult. Here's the short version: Lichdom is not dead. I still have every intention of finishing it and releasing my vision of what a lich should be to all of you lovely folks. It is, however, comatose. I simply lack the time right now to work on this mod, or to even play Skyrim at all. Real life has gotten in the way so much more than I could have ever anticipated, as well as new games have come across my desktop that are robbing so much of my attention right now. And while it pains me to have to say this -- hence why I've put this off for frankly way too long -- I have to shelve this project for now. All is not lost, however! I had always intended to make Lichdom a fully open source project, to welcome collaboration and even forking of the project for those whose ideas are different from my own. All this announcement really means is that I'm officially releasing the Lichdom source sooner than anticipated. Anyone who wants to pick up the development is welcome to do so, provided the following conditions are met: Properly credit my work. I've put a lot of effort into this mod, and I didn't do it so someone else could come along and steal it. So play nice. Properly credit my testers. They've put a lot of effort into this mod as well, and they deserve just as much acknowledgement in the final product as I do, if not more. They are, in no particular order: jonmsawyer, Shadowjin, oblivionhot, PieLighter, dudeinmask, CorperationPop Do not call your mod "Lichdom". What you produce will invariably be different from what I will eventually -- yes, it will happen -- release. You are welcome to say in your description that your mod is based on Lichdom, or is a fork of Lichdom, or any such similar language, so long as it is clear in both description and title that it is not Lichdom. I prefer to avoid any potential confusion between my eventual release and the work of others.Everything I've done to date is on my Github page. Hopefully some other modder out there -- maybe even one more skilled than I -- will pick this up and deliver to y'all a mod that satisfies. Regardless of whether or not that happens, I do intend to return to this mod when I find the time and motivation to do so. Ironically, I'm posting this announcement just as I'm beginning to see the glimmer of hope that real life may soon get out of my way again, that the time when I can return to working on this mod may finally be on the horizon. But frankly this announcement is months overdue, and as I can make no promise as to when I'll again have the time to work on this, I cannot justify not posting it. Thank you all for your support over these last many months, and your continued faith in me even when I had disappeared and given you no reason to believe this project still lived. And I'm sorry I'm not back with better news.

The lore's actually contradictory on this point, with -- as you point out -- Celedaen saying the phylactery is inconsequential after the transference, but lich lore citing it as their weakness. One way of reconciling the two is to point out the Celedaen himself chastised his own ignorance and foolishness in a subsequent entry in that same journal; maybe, while he was wrong about how to obtain the secrets, he was also wrong about the significance of the phylactery? Another way of reconciling it is to recognize that there are different types of liches with TES lore, and that Celedaen's method of obtaining lichdom (getting the secrets via divine revelation) and Artun's method (good old fashioned (magical) science) are different, so quite likely while they achieve similar results there will be differences. To put it another way, is a vampire a vampire? Well, no, actually -- one turned via Sanguinare Vampiris (Skyrim) has different abilities and different weakness than one turned via Porphyric Hemophilia (Oblivion). Or consider any of the host of other undead creatures throughout TES, each of which has several different variations even within the same game. Surely liches are no different in this regard, and there are different types of liches with different abilities and different weaknesses?

Oh that's a cool idea!! Unfortunately it's too late in the game to add that now, but that would be an awesome extra for Ancient Liches in the subsequent update! No one needs to worry about this mod vanishing. As PieLighter has said, there's already too much there for me to drop it now. And I have planned from the very beginning to make this mod completely open source -- if for any reason I am ever forced to drop it completely, I can promise you that everything I've done up to that point will be released for someone else to pick it up and continue it. I'm not publishing my source just yet because, frankly, it's a fugly mess that's just too embarrassing to put out there just yet -- have to clean it up before I do that (and have to do that anyway if I have any hope of keeping it maintained!). :P

To make a unique forge a la the Skyforge, simply duplicate a forge and then add a new, unique keyword to it (note that forges have a keyword like CraftForge or something, and then the Skyforge has an additional keyword CraftForgeSkyforge; you'd create a new one to add to your forge, like CraftForgeFrenchiesAwesomeForge). Then, in the recipes for your crafting recipes that can only be made at this one unique forge, the crafting table keyword would be changed to your unique one (just like how the Nord Hero recipes specify CraftForgeSkyforge). Oh, and if you want your unique forge to not permit normal crafting, simply remove the regular CraftForge keyword from it. If you additionally want these recipes available only after completion of some quest, have said quest grant the player a new perk (that is not added to the perk trees and therefore invisible), something like FrenchiesAwesomeCraftingPerk. Then, your recipes have an additional condition added to them that depend upon the player having this perk -- in exactly the same way as e.g. Dragon Scale armor requires the Dragon Smithing perk. *Note: It should be obvious, but the "keywords" above are not the exact keywords in use in the CK, and are here for illustrative purposes only -- hopefully the meaning is clear, and the real keywords obvious enough once you look for them.

Hey guys! This mod is not dead! Unfortunately, work is just absolutely insane right now, and when I'm done with 50-60+ hour weeks I just have neither the energy nor the motivation to then fire up the CK. Sadly, I have to say that the mod's current status is on hold. But not, I repeat NOT dead! I cannot estimate when I'll next have time to work on it, let alone when my testers can expect the next Alpha, and I certainly cannot even begin to guess when I'll have the public beta or general release out. What I can promise you is that I will see this project through to the end -- and by "end" I mean a fully functional release that you can all download and enjoy to your heart's content! I've already put too much work into this, I will not let this project die, not without on hell of a big fight, I promise you that!

What about this? When he dies, after you teleport him but before you resurrect him: Self.RemoveAllItems(HoldingCellChest, True, True)This takes everything out of his inventory and places it into HoldingCellChest, which should be an empty chest you place in his holding cell (be sure it and the holding cell don't respawn). Then, when you summon him, just before you teleport him to your location: Self.RemoveAllItems() ;Just empty his current inventory (should ditch that stupid bow) HoldingCellChest.RemoveAllItems(Self, True, True)This puts everything you stashed on him earlier back in his inventory. (Note that this means you should put any items you want him to initially have on him in the chest, not on his person. And I have no idea how this will interact with outfits -- probably need that to be in the chest as well.) Now, all that being said, I suspect the reason his inventory is resetting is because he and/or his holding cell are respawning. Make sure neither respawns. I don't think Resurrect() is supposed to reset inventory, so I suspect something else is doing that.

Sorry, but you'll have to use a script. It won't hurt compatibility to do so, though, just attach a new script to your object with an OnContainerChanged event: if the new container is the player, apply the effect; otherwise if the old container was the player, remove the effect. The effect itself should be an ability, applied via AddSpell and removed via RemoveSpell.

If you want to attach this script to your NPC, first you need to change that first line to have it extend Actor instead of ActiveMagicEffect. Then drop the OnEffectStart event altogether. This leaves you with just the Summon function. If you put it in the same script as the one with your OnDying() event, all you have to do is call it -- passing in your marker as the akSummoner argument, and self as akSummon.

To make it trigger on your NPC's death, use either the OnDeath or, my favorite, the OnDying event (OnDeath at least used to have some problems wherein it would not always fire -- no idea if those have been fixed, but I still stick to OnDying). This would have course have to be in a script on your NPC. For better visuals, you may want to consider using Utility.Wait, so that your NPC can die, you can see his corpse for a second or two, and then he gets teleported away. Or not -- up to you. Resurrection is easy, too: just call Resurrect on your actor. After you teleport him away to his holding cell, of course -- could even use Utility.Wait again just to be sure, if you wanted to. I haven't looked at that teleport spell tutorial, but there shouldn't be any issue with using it to teleport an NPC rather than the player. And, yes, you'd most likely teleport him to a markerREF in his cell. Or you could just use the same teleport -- shiny visuals and all -- you already use to summon him to the PC to instead "summon" him to a markerREF in his holding cell. So you'd attach a script to your NPC that looks something roughly like this: ObjectReference Property HoldingCellMarker Auto Event OnDying() Utility.Wait(2.0) ;give the PC time for a dramatic "NOOOOOOO!" upon the NPC's death YourShinyTeleportSpell(HoldingCellMarker) ;presumes that the passed-in argument is where you are teleporting to Utility.Wait(2.0) ;Wait a couple of seconds to make sure you don't accidentally rez too early Self.Resurrect() EndEvent(Note: Consider this to be pseudo-code, not an actual script, although it should be rather close.)

Nah, grand jury's different, we only say whether or not the state's got enough to take felony charges to trial, we don't decide guilty/innocent. And I think they'd get a little suspicious of I claimed to know the defendant in 12 distinct cases!! :P

Status update: Unfortunately I was called into grand jury duty, which sucked up the last two days and I've been unable to make the progress this week I needed to to get Alpha 4 to my testers this weekend. I've now got confirmed tickets and will be flying out bloody early Sunday morning, and returning late the following Saturday, so it's sadly going to mean a significant delay before much further progress is made. My testers have also turned up a couple of issues that, if confirmed, may take a fair bit of time in and of themselves to fix, further extending the delay. Right now I'm just playing things by ear, but I think end of March is still a fair target -- probably before that, really.

Maybe different tailors selling different tiers of goods? E.g. one specializes in expensive clothing, while another in more practical working clothing (e.g. miner's outfit, blacksmith apron, etc.). Competition is always good, too -- who says there has to be only one baker selling sweetrolls? In the real world competition is the norm (how many competing pizza joints do you have near you?), which is something generally lacking in Skyrim. Also, I like lots of different inns/taverns. Each with their own distinct atmosphere (a dark seedy one that my assassin/thief characters would favor; a bright, cheerful, well-to-do place that my Arch-Mage would prefer; etc.). Also would be nice to have one each of a "just inn" and "just tavern" -- not all such places cater to both sets of needs! (Probably "just taverns" would be more common...) Another option to consider is a training center, where you can find a few assorted trainers. Could even go fancy and have one place a gymnasium (focusing on combat skills), one place a wannabe Winterhold College (focusing on magic skills), and hidden back in some dark corner a few shifty-looking types who can teach you the tricks of the assassin's and thief's trades. Having too many trainers in one area (i.e. in one city) might be considered OP by some, though, as in vanilla you pretty much have to travel far and wide to find all the trainers you want. (On the other hand, these are probably the same one who might consider having so many merchants in one place OP, so maybe you just want to ignore them. :wink: )

Status update: It's getting exciting, folks!! I just sent Alpha 3 to my testers, and this version finally has a fully-functional quest to find the secrets to becoming a lich, one that will take you to the furthest corners of Skyrim and -- at least it has for me -- show you interesting places you've not yet seen in the game! Using the Radiant Quest system means that I wasn't restricted only to places I know, and it was actually a lot faster to do it this way (because I suck at navigating in 3D editors); it also means that no two games will be alike! With this major piece now in place, there's only a few more big pieces and a small handful of minor to-do items yet to cross off my list; I hope to have Alpha 4 to my testers this weekend, and soon after that I should be able to finally publish the open beta! A quick note, though: I will be traveling next week for work, and even though I'll likely have a lot of down time after work hours, I won't have access to my Skyrim computer. This means that if Alpha 4 is even a day later than I plan (and so far they've all been 1-3 days late), it will be delayed at least a full week, and either way the public beta is most likely at least 2-3 weeks away still. Still, I think it's looking good to release version 1.0 by the end of March!

I'm giving up providing an estimate on release -- things keep popping up that require being addressed first, or that slow down development and I get behind where I thought I would be. That said, though, it is getting close to being done, so it'll be out Soon*! *"Soon" is a Registered Trademark of 3D Realms, developer of Duke Nukem Forever. Good way to express it is saying "It'll get released once it's ready" :biggrin: Also, I am hugely sorry for the lack of participication on beta.. I've had couple of IRL things that keep me reserved quite well, and when I'm finally on my own PC, skyrim is not the first thing I want to think about. (Even if I do spend alot of my free time on Nexus..) No worries, I know all too well how life can get in the way, and it's part of the reason I accepted as many testers as I did -- I don't really need 6 people looking for bugs, but having 6 means that if 4 can't for any reason I've still got 2. :)

I'm giving up providing an estimate on release -- things keep popping up that require being addressed first, or that slow down development and I get behind where I thought I would be. That said, though, it is getting close to being done, so it'll be out Soon*! *"Soon" is a Registered Trademark of 3D Realms, developer of Duke Nukem Forever.