Doomsdayman

I've been quite active on the forums in the last month and it has made me realize the limitations of the current reply notification functionality. (Unless of course I have my setting completely fubared...in which case please help?!) Many mod pages posts section, and most of the popular forums receive countless posts over the course of a week; sometimes even over the course of a day. So while you can get notifications when the thread is replied too, it is still rather tedious to keep track of whether one of your questions or comments has received an answer. It seems rather a pity you may never see a response to one of your posts given how helpful Nexus users generally are in responding. It would be nice to have an option under the notifications options which notifies you when one of your posts specifically is replied too. Sorry if this has already been suggested, I only glanced over a few of the many pages in this thread. Also please do let me know if one of the notifications options already does this and I've just misunderstood the current functionality. Thanks!

In response to post #24765204. "One of the most extraordinary quest and adventure mod series migrated to ModDb... " I have to ask, what is the mod your were referring too? I would love to check it out...and I will make sure to thank the author because you are absolutely right; mod authors do deserve our thanks and respect for their work.

@Dark0ne Well I personally love reading your banal twitterings, so I'd love to see your responses to the Q&A. However the Skyrim Nexus's New's feed has already seen more than enough of this issue. I don't suppose there's anyway you can publish an article for those of us who are interested without it being a news item?

Interesting thoughts, but I think your comparison of Modding to football is a poor choice of analogy. To me it's like fan drawing on deviant art, or fanfiction writing. Modding is a way for us to create our own take on someone else's creation, and to share that with a community that shares our love. It lets the creators learn in a safe space, and get feedback for free. It gives consumers more access to content they like and can even encourage them to try being creators. Overall it's a wonderful thing. The reason monetizing mods seems weird to me is that there is already an avenue to professional modding; it's called being a developer. Just as fan-writers have gone on to publish their own books, and fan-artists have started their own paintings/comics/art, there are several modders who have gone on to develop their own games. This just seems like a healthy progression to me. I understand there is an argument for being "mini-developers"; creating assets like hats and skins could be essentially viewed as contracted development. I understand many modders would love to turn their favorite hobby into their job (and see this as a way to do that). However, I also understand what a special thing we have here on sites like the Nexus. Who knows, maybe payed and un-payed modding can co-exist.....I just feel it would be a travesty if the wonderful modding communities we had now died; just so Valve can make a few more million dollars.

Still have not managed to catch-up but I've got to call it a night. Some quick thoughts: Quest Awareness De-leved mods tend to break quest's realism, you mentioned changes to radiant quests which is a huge step-forward. This is more an issue with Vanilla's ridiculous quest progression which has you fighting dragons right off the bat, but (until I get off my ass and start working on my dream of overhauling the Vanilla quests) making the de-leveled world quest compatible would be wonderful. Skill Trees Trust me, there are a zillion ways you could combined trees and many different trees you could create...cooking and survival are the top ones in my mind (With Hunterborn and Frostfall support), though your potential tree is intriguing. It definitely has potential (I'm sorry I couldn't resist). Personally I would like to see some modifications. Cooking (Addition). Cooking is a crafting activity in Skyrim. It is the only crafting activity to have no tree tied to it and as a result it feels underdeveloped. Either a separate tree or the addition of a few perks onto a related tree could help expand cooking into a useful skill and not just a mechanic no one ever uses. Ultimately that would be my desire, for the mechanic of cooking to have a reason for existing. Survival (Addition). I'd love a tree for Hunterborn's perks, for increasing your fortitude and gathering skills in Frostfall's chilly world, for being able to better size up potential foes and recognize them from friends, and maybe a home for cooking. However I admit to being somewhat stumped as to what you would fill this with for those not realism/survival nutters. Magic (Modification).The Vanilla trees are mostly filled with very bland stat bonuses. I like some of the new perks you added to illusion. More of that would be great, those kind of perks feel much more satisfying imo. Initial Perks: While I am a fan of needing perks to really utilize a tree I'd suggest a metered approach. It bugs me when you can't pick any locks without a perk in lock-picking, as it means you can't level lock-picking without first investing a perk. This never tends be implemented evenly across schools. I have yet to see a mod where you can't swing a sword without a perk in one-handed, or wear armor without a perk in the respective tree. I would suggest that increasing the difficulty or decreasing the usability or a skill is fine, but do not block the usage. For example novice locks might be as hard as master locks in Vanilla with no perks; they would be pick-able, but very challenging. If it's possible higher level ones might have a micrometer like sweet-spot to they were still technically pick-able, but to do so would be an act of repetition and dumb luck so improbable it is essential impossible. Then imagine how happy you'd be if you got lucky. Meanwhile Potions could still be crafted without alchemy but mybe doing so would not only result in weak potion but have a chance to fail or poison you, etc.

Hey Arrogancy, thanks for the response! I'm sorry to take so long getting a reply back to you. I suppose, at least on some level, I really agree with all your points, but allow me to clarify the most muddied of my statements. I will try to follow your layout, as you are far better at organizing thoughts than me..I tend to ramble in case you had not realized. Roles Deeper was a poor choice of words, I was referring to increasing the depth of specialized branches over the 1-2 perks you find in vanilla. For example in your one-handed tree there might be 2-3 general perks and then each of your branches would have 2-4 perks; thus by level 40 you could easily have master perks in a few trees, you just wouldn't have ALL the perks in those trees. It might not be the direction you want to head, but I would love to feel that my dual-dagger-wielding assassin is not the same as my sword-and-board warrior despite both having heavily invested in the one handed tree. It sounds like you already have this is mind for trees like one-handed "those are to accomodate different playstyles", but I would propose that idea could be extended to every tree. Block is really good This really ties into the more options in combat. If you have more than one defensive move available to you (say dodging or parrying), then you can introduce strengths/flaws to blocking comparably (E.g. Less dependence on timing but a greater chance of being staggered, more damage reduction but more stamina drain, etc.). These might be enhanced/reduced through perks which would feed the feeling of building a unique character as you progress. Differences in Spells and Weapons This is a tough one. You are absolutely right that the visual progression as you play though Skyrim is a powerful feedback system; and after thinking it through I can't deny the game would severely suffer if it were not preserved. Also visual indications of strength are supremely important if you de-level the world. I suppose my suggestion all comes back to really valuing and wanting more choice. Look at it from a design point of view: Having items be "Leveled Up" versions gives you a feeling of progression, but it also reduces the number of meaningful tools you could have to chose from. There is no meaningful choice between an ebony sword and an iron sword ; the ebony sword is essentially a +10 iron sword. There is an antithetical choice, but otherwise one is clearly superior; it's a calculation and a simple one at that. Thus you've reduced your choices, a player will generally always chose the ebony sword because it has the best stats. Once you've found a deadric sword (which could happen quite early for an enterprising player in an unleveled world) every other sword becomes worthless except as something to exchange for materials/gold. I think some type of tiered system is inevitable but my suggestion is to try to institute some meaningful choice within that system. I do have two rough suggestions to help do so: incomparables, and usage cost. Incomparables: Reduce the number of "stat-based" tiers so that there are actual options in each tier which differ more by 'incomparables', differences that are not directly comparable (like apples and oranges) See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8fVtKyYxY. How to do so is quite a conundrum, I admit. I'd root for around 3-4 tiers with 3-4 options and Vanilla just does not offer enough different pieces to do that. However I think creating this choice would greatly enhance the experience. I have a great memory of spending 5 minutes debating over carrying a silver sword or a steel sword around in Requiem since I only had the carrying capacity for one. The steel sword had better stats but Requim gives the silver sword an "incomparable", it is very strong against undead. I had no magic ability to otherwise damage undead, so in the end I settled on the silver sword; better every other fight be a little harder and stand a chance the next time I came across undead. It was a choice I had to make with no clear optimal solution and I'd love to see experience more of that when selecting my weapon in Skyrim. Choice is nice. Usage Costs: Tiered systems are everywhere in RPG type games, you "build up" to better gear. It's a pretty big developer's crutch when it comes to giving players a sense of progression. As in Skyrim, the problem is gear on one tier becomes obsolete once you obtain the next tier. However I think games like Minecraft do a good job trying to mitigate this by introducing a 'usage costs'; perhaps usage cost is a poor choice of wording because I don't just mean the loss of item durability, I mean any cost you must accept by using the item. The risk you take of losing that item can be a very big cost. A diamond tool/armor is clearly superior to iron, but often I find myself making the choice to use iron because of the usage cost for diamond..the time and effort I risk losing should I lose it to mob/lava or worse. Just like that choosing a material is no long a simple calculation based on stats (mining time) but an exercise in risk management. It's a choice. Again difficult to say the best way to implement, but I would favor a degradation system like Loot and Degradation's. If you ebony armor could be damaged beyond usefulness until you had the ebony/gold to fix it up then wearing it over the easier/cheaper to fix iron armor would be much more of a choice. As would choosing to keep a spare set of armor on your horse...just in case. Boom more choice. I know I focused on weapons/armor so just to touch on spells. Spell already have a decent trade-off system with damage/magicka cost/cast time, but the magicka system in vanilla destroys this nuance. As you progress you can increasingly just cast the highest leveled version and so currently spells can tend to just clutter up your magic inventory. So I'd love either some motivation to use lower level spells sometimes, or a system like Forgotten Magic's where spells level-up instead of multiplying. There are also have several nice incomparables between spells that would otherwise be equivalent; these could just benefit from some fine-tuning, and expanding. A lightning mage shouldn't feel he has to use fire, but I would argue it's not particularly desirable if the only difference between fire ball and lightning bolt is the animation. The choice of pretty color is a pretty lame choice (See Mass Effect Ending). Options in Combat Well in short choice; better tactical combat. I'm a tactical player, I love shooters. Skyrim offers some great tactical play...but only if you run a "master of everything" character. In that case you have a plethora of tools to chose from in any given engagement. The problem is this breaks the role-playing/immersion for me. So in vanilla I constantly have an inner conflict: do I satisfy my tactical side, or my role-playing side? More choices in combat basically means expand the tool set a player who sticks to a 'class' might have available. As I said, mages have quite a few different spells/tools at their disposal, but warriors/ranges have only a few tools. Adding more moves/abilities/traps/options would increase the tactical play and stop that gameplay from getting so easily stale. Mechanics like timed-blocking are a great way to extend the game play, but they expanded the skill-based play; they do nothing to add to the tactical element. Since I favor tactical play I'm obviously in favor of anything that extends it. Plus if you could add animations as Kestrellius suggested it would add to the visual progression of your character when you unlocked new variations/options. Economics Oh god you just made me even more excited One last note: It's one hell of a design problem to balance these types of additions; even bigger if you also have to modularize them. You are a mad man. I love it.

It you want to patch the current "up-to date" version (pending Ogreboss finally releasing his 1.8 version), you'd need both.

After looking over your spreadsheet, I have to say I'm excited; you've clearly actually spent the time to think about the balance problems in the Vanilla system. Also excellent sense of humor, especially for a mathematician ;) So my personal desires? Perks and Skills: More 'role-play' and realism whilst keeping Vanilla's freedom of choice: You can still viably specialize in whatever weird combinations suit your character; you just can't master all of them. There's a character in the Interesting NPCs mod (whose name I forget) who is a smiting mage. I love that as an idea for a character. Yet the Dragonborn being a "heavy armored sneaky battlemage master smith alchemist enchanter" has always been immersion breaking for me. This problem is especially true of the crafting skills, is it just me or is it ridiculous the PC can master one of those crafts so easily, let alone all three? So I refuse to level outside the "skill set" I decide my character possesses, and it's annoying that other overhauls tend to (perhaps inadvertent) penalize you for this. Look at the Requiem's guides section, players often suggest grinding X skill to help with the brutal start, well what if my character doesn't like X? Why am I being punished for not playing one of the builds the author had in mind when designing the mod? (Poor design imo) In game terms... Better balance between the trees (e.g. block is not insanely strong to the point of being essential, a-la SkyRe). Larger and deeper perk trees whose branches really encourage a player to define their character. Perks on said trees that feel both powerful AND limiting/specific. It would be great if choosing a perk felt like a decision, a trade-off that would help define your character's strengths and weaknesses. Skills that do not offer much reward to player for just grinding levels in them. For example having no effect beyond unlocking perks, or at least no effect without perks. Combat: More variation in the options the player has DURING combat, and better clarity in those options. Right now a melee character has only 6 options in combat, which are really only 4 options. 1.) Attack-Swing, Bash, or Power Swing 2.) Block 3.) Run 4.) Switch to another modality. An archer has 3 options, 1.) Attack/Shoot 2.)Run 3.) Switch. Mages are offered a fair amount of choice, but (since there is very little difference in the impact most spells have) one can boil their options down to 1.) Deal damage 2.) Buff/healing allies/self 3.) Summon creature 4.) Place Trap/Rune 5.)Run 6.) Switch Also combat should seem fair and balanced. By fair I mean the player should feel like it was a conscious mistake on their part that caused a death. No insta-death, whether from an eagle-eyed snipers hiding in a bush, a bear sneak attack, or a random dragon attack (Seriously please try to avoid this, it's what killed Requiem for me). By balanced I mean the player should never feel they are doomed to die, nor destined to win against enemies of equivalent level; difficulty might vary based on build and enemy but victory and defeat are ideally always possible. [Ok so in an open world this is near impossible to achieve, but it seems a nice goal to aim for] In game terms: Better clarity in the strengths/weaknesses of weapons. Spells should feel more unique so that choosing one over another is not just a matter of which color/animation you prefer. If you're really clever removing/decreasing spell/material obsolescence would be a nice touch Some way to give more choice to melee/archer types IN COMBAT. Example: More 'moves' for archer types and melee type, like feints, crippling shots, disarms, traps. Very hard to implement admittedly.... World: Loot -More realism in the leveled lists. Bandits should not walk around in ebony, that's just ridiculous. Enemy variation. One of my favorite things Requiem does right; enemy types really do feel unique and discovering their weaknesses is a puzzle to solve. Watch economy. Lots of great overhaul out there already; I only mention it because changes to loot, crafting, and item value to the player all will effect the 'economy' the player experiences. Alright I've droned on long enough. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you may be inspired by my ranting in some way, and I wish you all the best with this mod!

I'm also interested in getting player's imputed text, and also foolishly assumed it would be simple. I like Matthiaswagg's idea a system similar to the one during chargen. Edit: Sorry if the following is extremely naive. My experience in coding is in simple simulations/modelling, and I'm beginning to fear implementing this may actually be far, far outside my reach. Is there a native function to call up the input message box used when showracemenu() is called? I can't find one anywhere, and using showracemune() as a work around is about as undesirable to me as using the letter by letter method of Convenient Horse Herding. I know TaiChiKid's Spell Crafting seems to track keystrokes so maybe, if the author'd be willing to explain that method, clever use of debug messages could stimulate an input box? Yet that would still not be ideal, and getting the method is a big 'if'. The functionality must exist SOMEWHERE in Skyrim's code for the race menu to work, right? I don't suppose there's anyone out there who knows how to do this?