kromey

Just to add a bit to my poll responses, primarily to "quest length" (I answered 30 minutes): I like individual quests to be in the 30-60 minutes range, shorter for the more hum-drum ones and longer for the more exciting ones (but only if making them longer doesn't make them less exciting). However, I like quest lines that consist of many quests that, in aggregate, take several hours to finish -- assuming there's variety (dungeon delves are fun quests, but a quest line that just sends you into dungeon after dungeon after dungeon will likely get repetitive and obnoxious after the first few). Also, please, for the love of the gods, have quests that actually have consequences! As a trivial example, consider that dragons only start to appear in Skyrim after the player has completed the quest to slay his first; a more interesting example however is the Forsworn at Druadach becoming friendly if you side with Madanach during Cidhna Mines, or not if you kill him. Quests with choices like this that have lasting consequences are what Skyrim desperately needs more of!

I'm assuming you did all of the following: 1. Create quest 2. Create Reference Alias in said quest, pointing to the player 3. Assigned the script (which extends AliasReference) to said alias 4. Made said quest "Start game enabled" I suspect your issue is either extending the wrong form in your script (don't worry, your events will still function because reference aliases receive all the same events as their object references), or forgetting your quest has to "start game enabled".

BYOHHouseCraftingTriggerScript mytrigger = (GetLinkedRef() as BYOHHouseCraftingTriggerScript) The method GetLinkedRef does exactly what it says on the tin -- it gets the reference linked to from the specified object. That there is no specified object (e.g. it's not someObject.GetLinkedRef()) is a sort of shorthand for running it on the current object, i.e. it's equivalent to self.GetLinkedRef(). The linked ref is then cast to a BYOHHouseCraftingTriggerScript object and stored in the variable mytrigger; based on these names I can only assume that the linked reference is a trigger of some kind with a script attached to it (named BYOHHouseCraftingTriggerScript), in which case this line is getting to that script so that it can call functions and/or access properties stored in it.

Version 1.0 will have liches and nether liches (the latter being the weakened form of the former, needing to repair their damaged phylacteries). Version 2.0 (or thereabouts) will add ancient liches, the next "evolution" if you will of liches. This ain't even in the planning stages yet -- still brainstorming on this one. My efforts for now are primarily on getting version 1.0 done and released, after which will be versions 1.1, 1.2, etc. adding new followers, new locations, lich NPCs, etc. And a side note: I think D&D has forever corrupted the meaning of the word "demilich". "Demi" is a prefix that means "half" (or, in many cases, simply "less"): a demigod isn't a more powerful deity, it's a less powerful one; a demitasse isn't a big coffee cup, it's a small one! So why is the more powerful form of lich called a "demilich"? Because, physically, it is less than it used to be -- e.g. just a skull with a pair of glowing eyes -- despite having given up that physical form because its power has grown to such a point that it doesn't need it! Nonetheless, this has associated "demi" with "more powerful", despite its meaning being better described as exactly the opposite. It's probably the one thing I fault Gygax for.

My life is fine. Job's a bit stressful right now, but playing Skyrim and working on mods is one of the ways I relax and blow off steam -- if I stopped doing that because of work stress, the stress would just keep building up!!

On Sunday I worked an 18-hour day, laid down in bed for 2 hours, so I could get up and work a regular 8-hour day Monday. Then I watched James Bond (Goldfinger and the first half of Thunderball), drank adult beverages (might have been fitting to have been drinking Bond's signature Vesper Martini, but we lack gin and Kina Lillet), and went to bed early. I haven't made any progress on the mod since my last update from Saturday; I have, however, started an issue tracker so that I can see and be depressed by just how much still has to get done before I release -- and that's even before I've turned over anything to my half-dozen testers to find bugs! I've also started working up instructions and guidelines for my testers, who for at least the first test version or two will have to use console codes to test quests that aren't yet fully implemented. By the way, I'm still feeling rather grouchy from that whole work ordeal, especially since all I have to show for working a 26-hour-day-with-a-2-hour-break is slightly-less-than-professional e-mail griping about undocumented error codes making it impossible for me to do my job since I have to diagnose and troubleshoot non-functioning, third-party, black-box hardware and software. So, apologies if I sound gruffer than usual today.

I find myself for the first time faced with *gasp* collaboration in the development of my mods. :blink: Not taking on other modders or scripters or anything like that (not yet, anyway...), but taking on a half dozen-ish testers, and rather than letting myself get swamped with e-mails and PMs reporting duplicate bugs I thought it would be wise to turn to my already-existing-but-not-being-used Github account and use their issue tracker (which is clean, simple, elegant...). Which is easy enough to create an empty "dummy" repository and use just the issue tracker, but since I'm using Github anyway, doesn't it make sense to use Github for revision tracking as well? Does it? :huh: I'm not a total stranger to git, but I'm by no means an expert, either; in my working life I'm relegated to using SVN, but I do use git on my personal projects (although those have been sitting idle for a year or so now...). However, how can I maintain a reasonable workflow when the CK and Skyrim all but forces me to work in the Data directory, the exact same place where many of the game's own files reside, as well as the two-three-four-dozen-or-so mods that I've installed? It seems like any time I modify a script I'd be wading through thousands of .psc files to add the revisions I want -- and Talos protect me if I ever dare to add a new one!! :yucky: I can't be the only one who's looked at using git for Skyrim mod development -- especially among you big collaborative projects. How do you guys have things set up to give yourselves a reasonable workflow, and otherwise make your git-using life not miserable? For bonus points, is anyone using git while working on multiple projects? How do you do that -- seems like it would almost require a single unified git repository for all of your projects? Or is there some black magic voodoo that lets you keep your respective repositories clean and isolated? For more bonus points, if you're involved in any of those collaborative projects -- What do you use to collaborate, and what advice can you give to someone who's about to tip their pinky toe into those waters?

I see two ways to accomplish this: 1) Make a series of perks that scale your effects; since making 100 perks for each skill (and then assigning them all to the player) is not only tedious but ridiculously excessive, you'd probably want to make tiers, e.g. every 10 to 20 skill levels your damage goes up. Not ideal, but straightforward. Edit: Never mind, this was a stupid suggestion. I blame it on being up for 30 hours straight and counting.... 2) Make all of your spells' Magic Effects use the Script archetype, and then write your script to apply damage based on skill. For example, the Magic Effect script for your Lesser Harm Undead would look something like this: Event OnEffectStart(Actor akTarget, Actor akCaster) Float damage = akCaster.GetAV("Restoration") / 2 ;Calculate the damage as Restoration/2 If damage > 50 damage = 50 ;Cap it at 50 (of course, skills are capped at 100, so this is probably unnecessary...) EndIf ; You will have to manually apply perk effects you want here akTarget.modAV("Health", damage) ;Apply the damage to the target EndEvent (Note: Untested code, I don't even know if it will compile -- best to treat this as pseudo-code showing you the idea, rather than an actual script giving you the answer. (Also, I wish the Nexus' code highlighting would recognize Papyrus comments...)) This is probably the route you'll want to go, as it gives you exactly what you're asking for. (NB: I don't think the equation for your second effect is what you mean it to be -- if I have 50 Restoration and 0 Destruction, I'd be doing 66.7 damage with that spell, whereas I think you probably mean it to be doing 37.5 damage, which is Restoration times .75.) Hope this helps. Good luck -- I love the concept you're going for here! P.S. You can apply the condition that the target be undead as either a conditional function on the Magic Effect in the Spell itself, or by adding a check to the script. Or, heck, for the fun of it -- both! :thumbsup:

No, the unused categories were added by a Skyrim patch and then (most of them) used up by Hearthfire. If your Skyrim is up-to-date (and being on Steam it almost certainly is), you have those slots, and if you don't have Hearthfire then you have more unused slots than the rest of us (but using them would make your mod incompatible with Hearthfire, unless you use them in the exact same way).

I have had similar experiences to cscottydont, i.e. horses don't persist in following me all the time (I can get how that would get real annoying, real fast); on the other hand, I rarely ride anyone, partly because it annoys me that my companion won't ride (and therefore gets left beyond in short order, to go off and get killed or just get lost with all of my loots), and partly because I just enjoy walking around and exploring Skyrim at my own pace (literally!). :tongue: Anyway, among the other things it does, Better Horses' alterations to horses' behaviors, and/or the new "calls" it adds, may fix what's broken for you. Plus you get horse storage and other neat features -- if I used horses, I'd almost certainly use this mod! :thumbsup:

You have no idea how tempting it is to call my upcoming new mod "Lichdom Overhaul" because of this thread! :devil: And while I'm at it, rename all my mods to "such-and-such Overhaul"! :teehee:

I'll probably put the call out for custom models after 1.0, and depending on how that goes 2.0 might even release with all-new custom models and stuff just for it! We'll see, though, I can not and will not make promises about things that are beyond my own capabilities, and completely out of my control.

At the very least there's going to be version 1.0 (become a lich), and version 2.0 (become an ancient lich). (No guarantees that these will be the actual version numbers, mind you, just a handy way of thinking about it for now.) I think once 1.0 is out and stable, I may give myself a bit of a break from the heavy scripting and such and work on a couple of followers for the lich (the ambitious young necromancer who wants the secrets you possess, and the strange girl who seems much too interested in the fact that you're a corpse...); it would also be cool to stick a few lich NPCs around in the world, maybe even a custom dungeon or two. (Actually, come to think of it, the followers can probably be done as standalone mods...) And if the whimsy takes me, I may work up a "lich tower" player home -- but then again there's enough of those out there already that the properly inclined lich can already find one more to their liking. So the short answer is that yes, I will be supporting this mod for a while, even if I can't tell you how many versions there will be. And even when I move on to other projects (either return to Dovahheim, or start on a heretofore unannounced, but long-planned, mod) I'll still be supporting Lichdom, at the very least squashing any bugs that turn up. Made some rapid progress today, much better than I expected for only having an hour and a half to work on it. Got tripped up on the "lich death" script a bit, but I think I've got it figured out how to proceed now (an "essential" character never triggers the OnDeath nor OnDying events, but it looks like the OnEnterBleedout event is what I need instead -- too bad I didn't find that one until long after :rolleyes:). Once that's sorted I think I'll have an alpha release going out to my testers. (On a related note, I'm rather pleased with the effects of the Elixir of Endless Night, should you choose to drink it -- especially for how simple a script it is! :teehee:) Speaking of which, I could still use more, if there are more folks interested in alpha testing (which is bound to screw up saves, so always make sure not to overwrite any saves you want to continue -- and to disable the mod before you do continue playing!).

The thing with hypothermia isn't joints freezing solid or anything, it's organs shutting down -- the human body has to maintain a certain core temperature range in order to function (not too hot (heat stroke), not too cold (hypothermia)), but an undead body has no such need, since it has no functioning organs to worry about the cold. (This is the same justification for the frost resistance, by the way.) Still, an undead body might have to worry about freezing solid, but then again maintaining a body temperature no colder than 33F/1C with magic would be trivial when you consider that it's plenty capable of flame spouts and hurling exploding fireballs...

I think an organized, cataloged library would be one sweet addition to the game; I find that I don't typically read the books in Skyrim because they're so random, and I can never find a good work of fiction when I'm in the mood for a story (or a good history when I want edumacated). I can't comment on the Hearthfire plans because, despite having bought the DLC, I haven't yet built any of them (been too busy working on my own new mod, Lichdom, and what little time I've spent playing the game I'm working on the TG and DB quest lines at the moment). I'm afraid I also can't help you figure out where/how to get started. But you asked if there would be interest, and I am interested in an organized, categorized, and cataloged library. :thumbsup:

Great news!! Chesko, the author of the awesome mod Frostfall, will be tweaking the way he checks for vampires to determine exposure immunity to expand it to all undead -- including liches! This is currently slated for 2.1 (current version is 2.0), but with any luck Frostfall 2.1 will be out at around the same time (or ahead of) Lichdom 1.0! :biggrin:

Sorry for the lack of updates -- work's crazy, with a major client threatening to walk away unless I can rescue a project that's been delayed and all but doomed by hardware and third-party software issues I have no control over, but naturally it's my job to fix! I haven't forgotten you guys or this mod, though, and progress on Lichdom has been good. I expect to have an alpha release done in the next few days, however because it is very likely to break save games (owing to the state in which I intend to "release" it for early testing and feedback) I will not be putting this on the Nexus, nor any other generally-accessible distribution network. If you would like to help alpha test this mod -- and if you understand and accept that the alpha versions should under no circumstances be used in a save you intend to continue playing, and that all future alpha versions are expected to go into clean saves -- send me a PM. (You're welcome -- and in fact encouraged -- to use a current save game for the alpha testing, just be sure to disable the mod and go back to that save point when you want to continue playing, or when you update to a new alpha version.) A more stable, generally-available beta release should be going onto the Nexus in about a week or two I expect, depending on how many issues turn up in the alpha. Note that the beta will likely be missing some features, but everything that's listed in the OP should be done and available by the time version 1.0 comes out (some time after the beta). As a side note, I do not intend to release the source scripts for this mod during the alpha or beta stages, however at or shortly after the general release I will have them cleaned up, documented, and available for download to anyone who wants them (to save space they won't be included in the main download).

Your script is a good first attempt, however inside your event you're starting to define a function (that's what the Function keyword means), but you never actually do (hence the compile errors I'm sure you're getting). Since you're attaching this script to the chest itself, you can use the special keyword "self" to refer to the chest when you want to call the Reset() method on it, like so: Scriptname Chestreset extends objectreference Event OnClose(ObjectReference akActionRef) self.Reset() EndEvent (Note: I make no promises that the Reset() call will actually do what you want it to do, I'm just helping you fix your script as you were writing it.) We don't have to pass anything into the Reset() method because we don't want to move the chest -- we just want its inventory to be reset. Now, obviously, this script will only work to reset the inventory immediately when the chest is closed. Which is good for testing purposes (open it, take everything, close it; open it again and check if stuff is inside it again -- although I think you may have to leave the area and return before it will actually reset), but if you want it to reset every 2 days... well, you seem to genuinely want to learn, so rather than just give you the answer I'll instead just tell you to look for the method RegisterForSingleUpdateGameTime() and the event OnUpdate. P.S. If you enclose your code snippets inside tags (remove the spaces), your formatting will be maintained as well as you'll get pretty colors that makes the thing a lot easier for those of us with old eyes to read. P.P.S. If you reset the chest, anything currently in it will be lost forever. If this is what you want (it's the normal behavior for respawning chests, i.e. most of them except those in player houses), then fine, but if you'd prefer to [i]add[/i] to the current contents than you'll need to use AddItem instead of Reset.

No problem -- and welcome to the wide wide world of modding! :) I had no idea "absorption" effects didn't raise experience, that's really strange...

1. On the Quest Data tab, there's a checkbox for Run Once; uncheck that to allow the quest to be repeatable. You may also need to check the box for Allow Quest Stages to be Repeated I believe (not certain, that one might only matter if you expect to repeat stages in a given execution of the quest). 2. The condition function you want is GetGold; run it on the player, use the > (or >= if you mean "at least 5" rather than "more than 5") operator, and set the value to 5.

Yeah, don't even think about attempting that without first getting really intimate with the CK (which, yes, you need to use that, or for something this simple a tool like TESVSnip would work -- but I'd recommend the CK if you think you might possibly make more mods later). And then consider that even most advanced modders wouldn't even dare to consider this, as for all intents and purposes the skills and the perk trees are hard-coded into the game (there are ways around that, but that's going well beyond what the CK lets you do...).

Not difficult at all. The first step is to make a Magic Effect for your spell. The easiest way to do this is to find an existing one that is already close to what you want to accomplish -- although in your case the Magic Effect the Staff of Magnus uses is probably already exactly what you want! The next step is to create a Spell that uses that Magic Effect; again, I usually start by duplicating an existing one that's similar to what I want to do. Make sure you change its Magic Effect(s) to point to the one(s) you want to use! That's really it. Save your .esp, launch Skyrim, open the console, type help "Magnus Spell" (or whatever you named it) Make a note of the ID that shows up next to the entry preceded by "SPEL:", and then player.addspell <ID> Now cast, and enjoy! Creating a spell tome is easy -- just make a book and set it to grant the spell you created above. Then you can place that somewhere in the world, and now you can find it and learn your spell without resorting to console trickery! Playing around with things -- and especially looking at how other things are already done -- is the best way I've found to quickly learn things; for example, to have your spell automatically level, you could apply multiple Magic Effects, each with a greater magnitude, with conditions so that they'll only be used at a certain level, e.g. mages with less than 20 points in Destruction get a 20-point Magnus effect, while mages up to 40 Destruction get a 40-point Magnus effect, etc.

As-of-yet undetermined. There will not be any fixed "you must be level X"/"you must have Y in skill Z" requirements. Rather, the only requirements will be your capability to complete the research (the journal fragments will be scattered about Skyrim, mostly within dangerous locations), and having enough Magicka to cast the two spells necessary (Magicka requirements not yet determined).

You will be classed as undead, yes, which means that silver weapons do extra damage to you, the Necromage perk boosts spells you cast on yourself (or not, if you use the Unofficial Skyrim Patch or a standalone "fix"), stuff like that. Draugr will still attack you even if you're undead -- you're undead, doesn't mean you're their type of undead. ;)

So far just yours (two more people have said they're working on something, though), although I expect once I have something released I'll be able to drum up much more interest and get much more responses. Thanks! :) Yup! Thanks! :)