[WIP] Apocrypha 2: Mesmerverse - Win Friends and Influence People

[EnaiSiaion]

(Alternate names: Mindverse, Shadowverse)

 

Everyone played Dwemerverse, the alteration package? Good! Here's Mesmerverse, the illusion package.

 

Pacifist Run

 

Illusion magic in Skyrim isn't really all that illusionary. It is nothing more than invisibility plus combat crowd control with a serving of cheese and gigantic red explosions. NPCs even consider it assault.

 

Mesmerverse is a package of ~30 new illusion spells. The objective of Mesmerverse is that one should be able to beat the entire game without direct damage (or summoning) by convincing the enemies to defeat themselves or each other. For the most part, you can even do it without drawing a weapon. Of course, they also help if you do decide to go the route of battleaxe diplomacy.

 

 

Not The Dovahkiin You're Looking For

 

Dwemerverse had tons of utility, Mesmerverse will come with tons of social engineering. Sell the junk you found in a dungeon to the bear at the entrance, convince the guards that it's thieving season and you're holding a permit, assemble your own posse of bodyguards, or make people hand over their items or strip for you.

 

 

So, more staves?

 

Staves were a Dwemerverse mechanic and rituals are a Warlockverse mechanic (spoiler alert). Instead, spells are (l)earned by being a brooding psychic vampire and stealing people's dreams, which also happens to make them more vulnerable to other mischief.

 

 

Also...

 

Shadowweave | Illusion magic may be more efficient in the dark.

Can't spell merethic without ethic | Disguise as another race or faction for funsies.

Dominating gaze | The ability to cast spells without casting spells just by looking at the victim.

Ioun Stones | The Mesmerverse version of Dwemer Stones, these come with passive illusion effects and can be ground into dust and consumed. Carry enough bling and the world* will be at your feet. *note: does not affect angry dragons, though they may be influenced by pretty lights.

 

 

Yeah, Yeah. When?

 

Asap, taking precedence over Thunderchild.

[Issa 5]

Can't wait for this, always been a massive fan of illusions and felt that Skyrim was somewhat lacking in that department. :D Good luck with it.

[TehKaoZ]

one word: YES!

[EnaiSiaion]

More details...

• 7 spell visual styles: 3 new ones (Dazzle, Glamour, Seduction) and 4 from Apocalypse with visual updates (Antimagic, Empathy, Nightmare, Shadow)
• Dreamstones and Mindstones sold by Sybille Stentor.
• As with Dwemerverse, I'm aiming for 6 spells per tier and 1 starter spell for a total of 25 spells.

Sweet nightmares

To learn spells, you have to buy a Dreamstone, which is like a soulgem based dreamcatcher, then find some sleeping (named) individual and use it to steal their dreams. This leaves the victim with a "Dreamless" debuff which makes them sleepy (so they act slower and are weaker in combat) and you can't steal their dreams again.


Did I say pacifist run?

There is also the equivalent of Dwemervers's Bionics (learnable passive abilities), except this time it's not as easy as buying or finding enough metal junk. You have to find a Dreamless victim, wear the appropriate Mindstone, and drain them again. This does leave them paralysed or dead.

[Hallabalooga]

I'm confused, dreamstealing works only on named npcs, but the second part kills them...aren't many named npc essential in skyrim? Sounds like it will be even more work for power than Dwemerverse.

 

p.s. never was a fan of illusion, since it's very boring and uninspired in vanilla, even skyre doesn't make it great. Maybe this will. Will try it out. I wonder if i will be able to play skyrim as a pacifist, never seem to be bale to.

 

P.S.OFF TOPIC Tried out your doomstone + racial packages. OMG! Insane! Just made a halbert weilding high elf, autoheal + auto spellcast pretty much spells WIN on a melee character. Thank you!

Edited July 21, 2013 by Hallabalooga

[EnaiSiaion]

The "named" part is gone, I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't cause bugs, but its buglessness has been confirmed so now it works on any sleeping NPC that isn't a child. Well, unless you want some of the really high end stuff, then you do need the innocent minds of children. It's not really much of a step down from making crystals grow inside your opponent's body in Dwemerverse. Life sucks and then you die horribly and your soul goes to Vaermina kicking and screaming. If it's too hard to catch someone sleeping, get one of those special red apples and have them eat it. They'll be sleeping for a while or until a prince kisses them.

 

One thing I'm planning is the ability to place a charm on an NPC, which you can then give orders from the other side of the world, like "come help me in battle" or "I want to sell stuff, come here and take it". Or perhaps "there's this quest item, would you kindly punch that guy in the face and get it for me?".

 

To support pacifist play, there'll be an ability to convince NPCs to just hand you their loot and walk away, but only if you are undetected when casting; as well as the ability to disguise as a faction member and shake hands with your enemies and just take their loot because obviously you're a friend, right? (For less pacifist play, use the opportunity to substitute a stick of dynamite an exploding potion and tell your mark convincingly that it's skooma)

 

For those of you looking to KEEL NOOBZ there'll be things like Suicide Urge, Illusory Drowning, Attract which makes a unit a universal target, and Weird which manifests a terrifying vision that gives everyone looking at you a heart attack unless they disbelieve. By the way, there's an early mindstone that emulates Mastermind (until you actually pick up Mastermind) but with a duration penalty, useful to get illusions to stick on nonliving targets at low levels.

 

Also, illusory weapons. They're real enough if you don't disbelieve. There'll be a scythe that instakills people who think it's real (but if they think it's fake, they'll laugh at you, evidently) (And that's where the Choking Laughter spell comes in).

[TehKaoZ]

any plans for like a mirror image type spell?

Something that creates illusionary images of yourself (perhaps that don't cause damage). Sorta like an "oh-crap" button

+useful for distracting dragons breathe weapons

[Hallabalooga]

Disbelieve...sounds intriguing, will it work similar to vanilla lvl cap of spells or lvl difference between you and target or something else (like random)?

Also, since you mentioned Vaermina, will you be altering the artifact? Something like an optional download that changes the effect. Because it's just so boring as it is now, a lot of work for a simple damage increase, bweh.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Hallabalooga

[Tykiii]

It looks very promising. I am looking forward to the release. :3

 

 

Hmmm… I see that the mechanic of acquiring those spells will be Vermina themed. Would also cool to make some of the spells Vermina themed. :3

 

Several random ideas:

- Spell that makes the victim feel sleepy and forces it to search out the closest bead to lay over and take a nap? Castable 2-3 times per day so it won’t make acquiring other spells too easy? ;)

 

-Hmmm… maybe some spells could only influence sleeping targets? Like a nightmare spell that will make the sleeping victim die from heart attack next time he/she takes a nap?

Orr… hmm a spell that will turn a sleeping NPC into a sleep-walking zombie like follower?

 

 

Alsoo… there probably will be a time when you are going to release all five verses in one esp. I was thinking that throwing in a unique book for each school that levels up this school would be nice. However it is not about leveling the schools of magic… more like each of those books could contain some lore friendly facts about the new spells and the mechanic of learning them. Making it feel like those new spells aren’t exactly legal to use… like each school of magic has its darkside. ;)

[EnaiSiaion]

@above

 

I won't change quests because this isn't a quest mod - though you may get rewarded for doing that quest.

 

Cloning the player is very bugged.

 

I don't think searching for beds works through doors, but I could try. :)

 

Five verses - six: Thunderchild is also a 'verse in many ways. :D I'm getting better (and reusing script code) so I hope to reach the point where all six verses are done by the end of the year. Currently I'm alternating between Thunderchild and Mesmerverse on a weekly basis (to avoid modder's block) which is faster than first one and then the other.

 

Vaermina themed - Vaermina is more like a rival than a help though. I might reuse some stuff from Dunaduan and its freaky nightmares.