Beam Arrow (self mod) issues

[Xzenowulf]

Ok, so i've been working on a mod idea that sounded really cool. I thought it'd be cool to get a beam to shoot out from the bow instead of a regular arrow. Basically: Shoot the thunder bolt spell from a bow. I did a some testing with different modifications to projectiles and arrows, as the bow would still be using "arrows" as ammo. I got the visuals to work.. a shocking beam shoots from the bow and can kill my target. But the problem is this: no magic effect. The enchanted shock damage doesnt get used when the target is hit and therefore it just counts as a regular (unenchanted) bow and arrow. Here is the run down of what all i did:

 

Made the enchantment for my bow and attached it (worked fine with normal arrows)

 

made a new projectile and put it's type as a "flame". (the reason for this is because using the "arrow" type would make it shoot like a missile and not a beam. same with the "missile" type. and setting it as a "beam" type made the animation last too long)

 

to make it easier to test, i cloned the bound bow spell and made the second spell summon my new bow and arrow set.

 

in game, i tested the enchantment with regular bound arrows, the enchantment worked and it delt the shock damage to my target.

 

then i attached the new "beam arrow" to the script to make the new arrows appear when i summoned the bow.

 

in game i tested the new arrows from the summoned bow, and the beam worked fine (using the flame type projectile.. tested the other projectiles stated above but they had the issues listed above). However, the beam visual did not use the shock damage enchantment (i tested it by low damage and long duration of the shock damage. this was to see if the damage over time would work, to see if the enchantment worked. it did not.)

 

another test I did was to add an explosion to the projectile to see if i could bypass direct damage and make it deal damage based on the explosion. i set the radius and the "inradius" to 1 (idk if changing these to a little higher would make it work. have not tested).

 

I also attempted to change the enchantment delivery type from "contact" to "aimed" hoping that instead of needing the "arrow" to make contact with it's target (assuming the beam wasn't registering direct contact), that it could just be aimed in an area and deal the enchanted damage that way. this did not work either.

 

My theory as to why the enchantment is not working on the beam is this: the flame type projectile is used for spells that carry a direct damage type from the spell mechanics, whereas arrows do not have magic effects and so the flame type beam isnt registering the bow enchantment as it's source of magic.

 

So this brings me to my issue as stated above. Does anyone know how to make the enchantment cast from a beam looking arrow?

If it is a script that is needed, can someone write it and pass it my way (or make the mod i've been working on and post it so i could download it.. that'd be fine too. i dont even care for credit for the idea/mod..)

 

Please assist, and thank you for you're time.

 

 

 

Update:

 

Did a little more looking into things. the enchantment only casts if the projectile is "arrow" (missile and cone didn't work, though didn't try "lobber" but im assuming it is to the same effect, and it doesnt help the original issue either way). So there are 2 ways i can think of making this work. 1) script an "on hit" effect to the arrow/bow, or 2) Model a new "arrow" image to project a beam like thunder bolt. Preferably the script idea, as I believe that it has more chance of success and it would allow to use any beam-type spell animations to be turned into arrows.

Edited September 3, 2013 by Xzenowulf